about eleven o'clock
While they sat debating his case in whispers , and with their heads so close you might have covered them all with a tea-tray , a clear musical voice was heard to speak to the barmaid , and , by her direction , in walked into the council-chamber -- Mr. Henry Little . This visit greatly surprised Messrs. Parkin , Jobson , and Potter , and made them stare , and look at one another uneasily . But it did not surprise Grotait so much , and it came about in the simplest way . That morning , at about eleven o'clock , Dr. Amboyne had called on Mrs. Little , and had asked Henry , rather stiffly , whether he was quite forgetting Life , Labor and Capital . Now the young man could not but feel that , for some time past , he had used the good doctor ill ; had neglected and almost forgotten his benevolent hobby ; so the doctor 's gentle reproach went to his heart , and he said , `` Give me a day or two , sir , and I 'll show you how ashamed I am of my selfish behavior . '' True to his pledge , he collected all his notes together , and prepared a report , to be illustrated with drawings . He then went to Cheetham 's , more as a matter of form than any thing , to see if the condemned grindstone had been changed .