nine o'clock
` What does the man mean ? ' He was still happy in the prospect of finding Camilla , but it was as though his happiness were a pool in a private ground , and some trespasser had troubled it with a stone . The clock struck ten , and Simon entered with tea and the paper . The paper contained a whole-page advertisement of Hugo 's great annual sale , and also a special half-page advertisement headed ` Hugo 's Apology and Promise ' -- a message to the public asking pardon of the public for the confusion , inconvenience , and disappointments of the previous day , hinting that the mystery of the affair would probably be elucidated in a criminal court , and stating that a prodigious number of silvered fox-stoles would positively be available from nine o'clock that morning at a price even lower than the figure named in the original announcement . The message further stated that a special Complaint Office had been opened as a branch of the Inquiry Bureau , and that all complaints by customers who had suffered on New Year 's Day would there be promptly and handsomely dealt with . In addition to Hugo 's advertisements , there were several columns of news describing the singular phenomena of the sale , concluding with what a facetious reporter had entitled ` Interviews with Survivors . ' As he read the detailed accounts Hugo knew , perhaps for the first time in his life , what it was ` to go hot and cold all over . '