about ten o'clock
-- _ Shakspeare _ . LET the reader imagine a long table covered with the remains of an excellent dessert , interspersed with a multitude of bottles of all shapes and sizes , containing every variety of wine that money could procure , or palate desire ; whilst in the centre stood a glorious old china bowl of punch , which the guests were discussing in tumblers -- wine-glasses having been unanimously voted much too slow . Around this table let there be seated from fifteen to twenty men , whose ages might vary from nineteen to three - or four-and-twenty ; some smoking cigars , some talking vociferously , some laughing , some though they were decidedly the minority , listening : but ~ 164 ~ ~ all showing signs of being more or less elated by the wine they had taken . Let the reader imagine all this , and he will have formed a pretty correct idea of the supper-party in Lawless 's rooms , as it appeared about ten o'clock on the evening subsequent to the conversation I have just detailed . `` Did n't I see you riding a black horse with one white stocking yesterday , Oaklands ? '' inquired a young man with a round jovial countenance , which might have been reckoned handsome but for the extreme redness of the complexion , and the loss of a front tooth , occasioned by a fall received in the hunting field , whose name was Richard , or , as he was more commonly termed , Dick Curtis . `` Yes , '' replied Oaklands , `` I daresay you did ; I was trying him . ''