the hour of eight
They found the strange inability of one epoch to understand or appreciate the others , hard to reconcile with the ordinary notion of a persistent identity . Before the end of the week , the occupation of their minds with the subject of old age produced a singular effect . They began to regard every event and feeling from a double standpoint , as present and as past , as it appeared to them and as it would appear to an old person . Wednesday evening came at last , and a little before the hour of eight , five venerable figures , more or less shrouded , might have been seen making their way from different parts of the village toward the Fellows mansion . The families of the members of the club were necessarily in the secret , and watched their exit with considerable laughter from behind blinds . But to the rest of the villagers it has never ceased to be a puzzle who those elderly strangers were who appeared that evening and were never before or since visible . For once the Argus-eyed curiosity of a Yankee village , compared with which French or Austrian police are easy to baffle , was fairly eluded .