eight o'clock
It would bring pain to the woman he loved ; it might ruin her father ; but the pain and the ruin would be inflicted unsparingly by his righteous young hand , which knew nothing yet of mercy but was all for justice , and justice untempered with mercy is a terrible weapon . This Hinton was yet to learn . After a time , restless from the complexity of his musings , Hinton went out . He had promised to return to the Harmans for dinner , but their hour for dinner was eight o'clock , and it still wanted nearly three hours of that time . As Charlotte had done before that day , he found himself in the close neighborhood of Regent 's Park . He would have gone into the park , but that he knew that the hour of closing the gates at this early period of the year must be close at hand ; he walked , therefore , by the side of the park , rather aimlessly it is true , not greatly caring , provided he kept moving , in what direction his footsteps took him . At last he found himself on the broad tram line which leads to the suburb of Kentish Town .