two o'clock
A very clever , quiet man , and a good deal employed by old Hawker , when his business was not too disreputable . Some years before , Hawker had brought some such excessively dirty work to his office , that the lawyer politely declined having anything to do with it , but recommended him to an attorney who he thought would undertake it . And from that time the old fellow treated him with marked respect , and spoke everywhere of him as a man to be trusted : such an effect had the fact of a lawyer refusing business made on him ! He reached Exeter by two o'clock , so rapidly had he driven . He went at once to Dickson 's , and found him at home , busy swinging the poker , in deep thought , before the fireplace in his inner office . He was a small man , with an impenetrable , expressionless face , who never was known to unbend himself to a human being . Only two facts were known about him .