1 p.m.
This done , he set out to Brown 's to arrange with the committee the details of his departure . He reached Brown 's at twenty minutes past two and left it again at twenty-three minutes past ; for , directly he entered , the hall porter had handed him a telephone message . The telephone attendants at London clubs are masters of suggestive brevity . The one in the basement of Brown 's had written on Bill 's slip of paper the words : ' 1 p.m. Will Lord Dawlish as soon as possible call upon Mr Gerald Nichols at his office ? ' To this was appended a message consisting of two words : ` Good news . ' It was stimulating . The probability was that all Jerry Nichols wanted to tell him was that he had received stable information about some horse or had been given a box for the Empire , but for all that it was stimulating .