eight o'clock
But I have nothing to do with that now . It is about cousin Phillis that I am going to write , and as yet I am far enough from even saying who cousin Phillis was . For some months after I was settled in Eltham , the new employment in which I was engaged -- the new independence of my life -- occupied all my thoughts . I was at my desk by eight o'clock , home to dinner at one , back at the office by two . The afternoon work was more uncertain than the morning 's ; it might be the same , or it might be that I had to accompany Mr Holdsworth , the managing engineer , to some point on the line between Eltham and Hornby . This I always enjoyed , because of the variety , and because of the country we traversed -LRB- which was very wild and pretty -RRB- , and because I was thrown into companionship with Mr Holdsworth , who held the position of hero in my boyish mind . He was a young man of five-and-twenty or so , and was in a station above mine , both by birth and education ; and he had travelled on the Continent , and wore mustachios and whiskers of a somewhat foreign fashion .