five o’clock
` Now , Joe ! ' And Joe having been at length awakened , the two friends departed in Mr. Wardle 's carriage , which in common humanity had a dickey behind for the fat boy , who , if there had been a footboard instead , would have rolled off and killed himself in his very first nap . Driving to the George and Vulture , they found that Arabella and her maid had sent for a hackney-coach immediately on the receipt of a short note from Emily announcing her arrival in town , and had proceeded straight to the Adelphi . As Wardle had business to transact in the city , they sent the carriage and the fat boy to his hotel , with the information that he and Mr. Pickwick would return together to dinner at five o'clock . Charged with this message , the fat boy returned , slumbering as peaceably in his dickey , over the stones , as if it had been a down bed on watch springs . By some extraordinary miracle he awoke of his own accord , when the coach stopped , and giving himself a good shake to stir up his faculties , went upstairs to execute his commission . Now , whether the shake had jumbled the fat boy 's faculties together , instead of arranging them in proper order , or had roused such a quantity of new ideas within him as to render him oblivious of ordinary forms and ceremonies , or -LRB- which is also possible -RRB- had proved unsuccessful in preventing his falling asleep as he ascended the stairs , it is an undoubted fact that he walked into the sitting-room without previously knocking at the door ; and so beheld a gentleman with his arms clasping his young mistress 's waist , sitting very lovingly by her side on a sofa , while Arabella and her pretty handmaid feigned to be absorbed in looking out of a window at the other end of the room .