six o'clock
He parted from her in a whirl of variegated ecstasies . ` Let us eat and drink , for to-morrow we die , ' he remarked to the street . What he meant was that , after more than a month 's excogitation , he had absolutely failed to get any single shred of a theme for the successor to _ Love in Babylon _ -- that successor out of which a mere couple of thousand pounds was to be made ; and that he did n't care . There was to be an important tea-meeting at the Munster Park Chapel on the next Saturday afternoon but one , and tea was to be on the tables at six o'clock . The gathering had some connection with an attempt on the part of the Wesleyan Connexion to destroy the vogue of Confucius in China . Mrs. Knight and Aunt Annie had charge of the department of sandwiches , and they asked Henry whether he should be present at the entertainment . They were not surprised , however , when he answered that the exigencies of literary composition would make his attendance impossible .