nearly nine o'clock
Tom had never been in London , and would have liked to have stopped at the Belle Savage , where they had been put down by the Star , just at dusk , that he might have gone roving about those endless , mysterious , gas-lit streets , which , with their glare and hum and moving crowds , excited him so that he could n't talk even . But as soon as he found that the Peacock arrangement would get him to Rugby by twelve o'clock in the day , whereas otherwise he would n't be there till the evening , all other plans melted away , his one absorbing aim being to become a public school-boy as fast as possible , and six hours sooner or later seeming to him of the most alarming importance . Tom and his father had alighted at the Peacock at about seven in the evening ; and having heard with unfeigned joy the paternal order , at the bar , of steaks and oyster-sauce for supper in half an hour , and seen his father seated cozily by the bright fire in the coffee-room with the paper in his hand , Tom had run out to see about him , had wondered at all the vehicles passing and repassing , and had fraternized with the boots and hostler , from whom he ascertained that the Tally-ho was a tip-top goer -- ten miles an hour including stoppages -- and so punctual that all the road set their clocks by her . Then being summoned to supper , he had regaled himself in one of the bright little boxes of the Peacock coffee-room , on the beef-steak and unlimited oyster-sauce and brown stout -LRB- tasted then for the first time -- a day to be marked for ever by Tom with a white stone -RRB- ; had at first attended to the excellent advice which his father was bestowing on him from over his glass of steaming brandy-and-water , and then began nodding , from the united effects of the stout , the fire , and the lecture ; till the Squire , observing Tom 's state , and remembering that it was nearly nine o'clock , and that the Tally-ho left at three , sent the little fellow off to the chambermaid , with a shake of the hand -LRB- Tom having stipulated in the morning before starting that kissing should now cease between them -RRB- , and a few parting words : `` And now , Tom , my boy , '' said the Squire , `` remember you are going , at your own earnest request , to be chucked into this great school , like a young bear , with all your troubles before you -- earlier than we should have sent you perhaps . If schools are what they were in my time , you 'll see a great many cruel blackguard things done , and hear a deal of foul , bad talk . But never fear . You tell the truth , keep a brave and kind heart , and never listen to or say anything you would n't have your mother and sister hear , and you 'll never feel ashamed to come home , or we to see you . ''