eight o'clock
`` And why , '' I asked , `` do you laugh at serious work ? '' `` Why , yer bloomin ' life ` ull go by like a wind , '' he said , `` and yer ` ole silly civilization ` ull be tidied up in a few centuries . '' Then he fell to laughing again and this time audibly ; and , laughing still , faded back through the wall again and into the eternity from which he had come . A young man came into an ornate restaurant at eight o'clock in London . He was alone , but two places had been laid at the table which was reserved for him . He had chosen the dinner very carefully , by letter a week before . A waiter asked him about the other guest .