three
o'clock
`` Twenty-five minutes . '' `` Then , '' returned Mr. Gadsby , `` I can quite see Dr. Thorton informing the young men that they would be expected to remain at least five times as long after school as they had been improperly away from it . That is -- er -- ah -- he would have sent for his own dinner , and would have eaten it at his desk , with scores of hungry young men looking on while their own dinners went cold . At three o'clock -- perhaps -- Dr. Thornton would have dismissed the offenders . It would be many a day before the boys would try anything of that sort again on good old Thornton . But you , my dear Cantwell , I am afraid you have failed to make the boys respect you at all times . The power of enforcing respect is the basis of all discipline . ''