"Beggin' your pardon, but it woan't do, zur. 'Ee must get up--past vore
zur."

"The devil take you! will you--"

"If you please, zur; but 'ee must get up. It be a good deal past
vore--no use for 'ee to grumble, zur; nobody do like gettin' up at vore
o'clock as can help it; but 'ee toald I to carl 'ee, and it bean't my
duty to go till I hear 'ee stirrin' about the room. Good deal past vore,
'tis I assure 'ee, zur." And here he thundered away at the door; nor did
he cease knocking till I was fairly up, and had shown myself to him, in
order to satisfy him of the fact. "That'll do, zur; 'ee toald I to carl
'ee, and I hope I ha' carld 'ee proper_ly_."

I lit my taper at the rush-light. On opening a window-shutter I was
regaled with the sight of a fog, which London itself, on one of its most
perfect November days, could scarcely have excelled. A dirty, drizzling
rain was falling; my heart sank within me. It was now twenty minutes
past four. I was master of no more than forty disposable minutes, and,
in that brief space, what had I not to do! The duties of the toilet were
indispensable--the portmanteau _must_ be packed--and, run as fast as
I might, I could not get to the coach-office in less than ten minutes.
Hot water was a luxury not to be procured: at that villanous hour not
a human being in the house (nor, do I believe, in the universe entire),
had risen--my unfortunate self, and my companion in wretchedness,
poor Boots, excepted. The water in the jug was frozen; but, by dint of
hammering upon it with the handle of the poker, I succeeded in enticing
out about as much as would have filled a tea-cup. Two towels, which had
been left wet in the room, were standing on a chair bolt upright, as
stiff as the poker itself, which you might, almost as easily, have bent.