nine o’clock
-LRB- Hear ! hear ! -RRB- To describe my feelings accurately , would be impossible ; but I can not give you a better idea of them , gentlemen , than by referring to a circumstance which happens , oddly enough , to occur to my mind at the moment . On one occasion , when that truly great and illustrious man , Sheridan , was -- ' Now , there is no knowing what new villainy in the form of a joke would have been heaped on the grave of that very ill-used man , Mr. Sheridan , if the boy in drab had not at that moment entered the room in a breathless state , to report that , as it was a very wet night , the nine o'clock stage had come round , to know whether there was anybody going to town , as , in that case , he -LRB- the nine o'clock -RRB- had room for one inside . Mr. Minns started up ; and , despite countless exclamations of surprise , and entreaties to stay , persisted in his determination to accept the vacant place . But , the brown silk umbrella was nowhere to be found ; and as the coachman could n't wait , he drove back to the Swan , leaving word for Mr. Minns to ` run round ' and catch him . However , as it did not occur to Mr. Minns for some ten minutes or so , that he had left the brown silk umbrella with the ivory handle in the other coach , coming down ; and , moreover , as he was by no means remarkable for speed , it is no matter of surprise that when he accomplished the feat of ` running round ' to the Swan , the coach -- the last coach -- had gone without him .