half past twelve
No words can express the secret agony of my soul as I sunk into this companionship ; compared these henceforth everyday associates with those of my happier childhood -- not to say with Steerforth , Traddles , and the rest of those boys ; and felt my hopes of growing up to be a learned and distinguished man , crushed in my bosom . The deep remembrance of the sense I had , of being utterly without hope now ; of the shame I felt in my position ; of the misery it was to my young heart to believe that day by day what I had learned , and thought , and delighted in , and raised my fancy and my emulation up by , would pass away from me , little by little , never to be brought back any more ; can not be written . As often as Mick Walker went away in the course of that forenoon , I mingled my tears with the water in which I was washing the bottles ; and sobbed as if there were a flaw in my own breast , and it were in danger of bursting . The counting-house clock was at half past twelve , and there was general preparation for going to dinner , when Mr. Quinion tapped at the counting-house window , and beckoned to me to go in . I went in , and found there a stoutish , middle-aged person , in a brown surtout and black tights and shoes , with no more hair upon his head -LRB- which was a large one , and very shining -RRB- than there is upon an egg , and with a very extensive face , which he turned full upon me . His clothes were shabby , but he had an imposing shirt-collar on . He carried a jaunty sort of a stick , with a large pair of rusty tassels to it ; and a quizzing-glass hung outside his coat , -- for ornament , I afterwards found , as he very seldom looked through it , and could n't see anything when he did .