eight o'clock in the evening
ABOUT the middle of the last century , at eight o'clock in the evening , in a large but poor apartment , a man was slumbering on a rough couch . His rusty and worn suit of black was of a piece with his uncarpeted room , the deal table of home manufacture , and its slim unsnuffed candle . The man was Triplet , scene painter , actor and writer of sanguinary plays , in which what ought to be , viz. , truth , plot , situation and dialogue , were not ; and what ought not to be , were -- _ scilicet , _ small talk , big talk , fops , ruffians , and ghosts . His three mediocrities fell so short of one talent that he was sometimes _ impransus .