half
past nine
Doady will carry me upstairs before you go , and I wo n't come down again till you come back ; and you shall take Agnes a dreadfully scolding letter from me , because she has never been to see us ! ' We agreed , without any more consultation , that we would both go , and that Dora was a little Impostor , who feigned to be rather unwell , because she liked to be petted . She was greatly pleased , and very merry ; and we four , that is to say , my aunt , Mr. Dick , Traddles , and I , went down to Canterbury by the Dover mail that night . At the hotel where Mr. Micawber had requested us to await him , which we got into , with some trouble , in the middle of the night , I found a letter , importing that he would appear in the morning punctually at half past nine . After which , we went shivering , at that uncomfortable hour , to our respective beds , through various close passages ; which smelt as if they had been steeped , for ages , in a solution of soup and stables . Early in the morning , I sauntered through the dear old tranquil streets , and again mingled with the shadows of the venerable gateways and churches . The rooks were sailing about the cathedral towers ; and the towers themselves , overlooking many a long unaltered mile of the rich country and its pleasant streams , were cutting the bright morning air , as if there were no such thing as change on earth .