one o'clock
... a mockery of a great profession ... lowering of dignity ... incompatible with the highest ideals of ... '' At ten o'clock that night , Tom was telling his troubles to a red-coated man behind a chromium bar on Forty-ninth Street . The man listened with all the gravity of a physician , and lined up the appropriate medicine in front of his patient . By midnight , Tom was singing Christmas carols , in advance of the season , with a tableful of Texans . At one o'clock , he swung a right cross at a mounted policeman , missed , and fell beneath the horse 's legs . At one-fifteen , he fell asleep against the shoulder of a B-girl as they rode through the streets of the city in a sleek police vehicle . That was all Tom Blacker remembered , until he woke up in Livia Cord 's cozy two-room apartment . He moved his head and winced with the pain .