one o'clock in the morning
The doctor found a Swiss cowbell on the mantelpiece and rang it wildly . Colonel Parker took up the tongs and began rapping out a furious fox-trot on the mantelshelf , which the general accompanied from his armchair with a beatific whistle . Of the end of the evening Aurelle had but a blurred remembrance . Towards one o'clock in the morning he found himself squatting on the floor drinking stout beside a little major , who was explaining to him that he had never met more respectable women than at Port Said . Meanwhile Dundas started to chant a ditty about the virtues of one notorious Molly O'Morgan ; Colonel Parker repeated several times , `` Aurelle , my boy , do n't forget that if Englishmen can afford to make fools of themselves , it is only because England is such a devilishly serious nation ; '' and Dr. O'Grady , who was getting to the sentimental stage , sang many songs of his native land in a voice that was full of tears . `` Tout homme de courage est homme de parole . '' -- Corneille Stapleton Hall , Stapleton , Kent .