four o'clock
He was garbed in his working suit of denim blue , trimmed with monkey wrench and chisel , and he wore , further , an air of exaggerated fatigue . A rounded protuberance upon his cheek indicated that the exhilaration of the quid was not wanting to his inner man , but the solace he drew from it appeared pitifully trifling . Now and then he would pause , rest his person against a lamp-post , or the front of some emporium , and shake his head despondently , like one most fearful of the consequences of certain matters . Since four o'clock that afternoon , in fact , Mr. Hackley had been out upon a reluctant stint of lawn-mowing , reluctant because he hated all work with a Titanic hatred and sedulously cultivated the conviction that his was a delicate health . In view of the magnificent windfall in connection with the killing of his dog , it had not been his design to accept any more retainers for a long time to come . That occurrence had lifted him , as by the ears , from the proletariat into the capitalistic leisure class ; and the map of the world had become but the portrait of his oyster . But at noon as he lolled upon his rear veranda , chatting kindly with his wife as she hung the linen of quality upon her drying lines , a lady had knocked upon his door , beautiful and insistent , to wheedle his will from him .