eleven o’clock
Besides , my attention was much distracted by the fear that the sempstress would not send home my dozen of new shirts , and that a vile _ procrastinating _ boot-maker would never come with my boots . Every rap at the door I started up to inquire whether _ that _ was the shirts , or the boots : thrice I overturned the red , and twice the black ink bottles by these starts ; and the execrations which I bestowed upon those tradespeople , who will put off every thing to the last moment , were innumerable . I had orders to set off in the mail-coach for Portsmouth , to join the rest of the ambassador 's suite . The provoking watchman cried `` past eleven o'clock '' before I had half-finished ruling my commonplace-book ; my shirts and my boots were not come : the mail-coach , as you may guess , set off without me . My poor father was in a terrible tremor , and walked from room to room , reproaching me and himself ; but I persisted in repeating that Lord M. would not set out the day he had intended : that nobody , since the creation of the world , ever set out upon a long journey the day he first appointed : besides , there were at least a hundred chances in my favour that his lordship would break down on his way to Portsmouth ; that the wind would not be fair when he arrived there ; that half the people in his suite would not be more punctual than myself , & c. By these arguments , or by mere dint of assertion , I quieted my father 's apprehensions and my own , and we agreed that , as it was now impossible to go to-day , it was best to stay till to-morrow . Upon my arrival at Portsmouth , the first thing I heard was that the Lion and Hindostan had sailed some hours before , with the embassy for China . Despair deprived me of utterance .