four
o'clock
The scene which it exhibited , and particularly the attitude of the counsellor himself , the principal figure therein , struck his two clients with amazement . Mr. Pleydell was a lively , sharp-looking gentleman , with a professional shrewdness in his eye , and , generally speaking , a professional formality in his manners . But this , like his three-tailed wig and black coat , he could slip off on a Saturday evening , when surrounded by a party of jolly companions , and disposed for what he called his altitudes . On the present occasion the revel had lasted since four o'clock , and at length , under the direction of a venerable compotator , who had shared the sports and festivity of three generations , the frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of HIGH JINKS . This game was played in several different ways . Most frequently the dice were thrown by the company , and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain for a time a certain fictitious character , or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order . If they departed from the characters assigned , or if their memory proved treacherous in the repetition , they incurred forfeits , which were either compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper or by paying a small sum towards the reckoning .