four o'clock
What if he could become the parent of a totally different order of things ! What if the Civil Service , through his instrumentality , should become the nucleus of the best intellectual diligence in the country , instead of being a byword for sloth and ignorance ! Mr. Hardlines meditated deeply on this , and , as he did so , it became observed on all sides that he was an altered man as regarded his solicitude for the Weights and Measures . One or two lads crept in , by no means conspicuous for their attainments in abstract science ; young men , too , were observed to leave not much after four o'clock , without calling down on themselves Mr. Hardlines ' usual sarcasm . Some said he was growing old , others that he was broken-hearted . But Mr. Hardlines was not old , nor broken in heart or body . He was thinking of higher things than the Weights and Measures , and at last he published a pamphlet .