about eleven o'clock
Curse the coffee-room , sir ! Demme , sir , do you suppose I 'm a commercial traveller ? Show me into a private room , sir ! '' The waiter bowed low ; and in silent surprise led Mr. Titmouse to a very spacious and elegantly-furnished apartment -- where , amid the blaze of six wax candles , and attended by three waiters , he supped , an hour or two afterwards , in great state -- retiring about eleven o'clock to his apartment , overcome with fatigue -- and brandy and water : having fortunately escaped the indignity of being forced to sit in the room where an English nobleman , two or three county members , and a couple of foreign princes , were sitting sipping their claret , some writing letters , and others conning over the evening papers . About noon , the next day , he called upon the Earl of Dreddlington ; and though , under ordinary circumstances , his Lordship would have considered the visit rather unseasonable , he nevertheless received his fortunate and now truly distinguished kinsman with the most urbane cordiality . At the earl 's suggestion , and with Mr. Gammon 's concurrence , Titmouse , within about a week after his arrival in town , took a set of chambers in the Albany , together with the elegant furniture which had belonged to their late tenant , a distinguished fashionable , who had shortly before suddenly gone abroad upon a mission of great importance -- _ to himself _ : viz. to avoid his creditors . Mr. Titmouse soon began to feel , in various ways , the distinction which was attached to his name -- commencing , as he did at once , the gay and brilliant life of a man of high fashion , and under the august auspices of the Earl of Dreddlington .