one o'clock
`` If you are going to sleep before we start you had better be about it ! '' she said , looking back at him from the stairs . But he had no further need of sleep ; and for a long while he stood at the windows watching the lamps of cabs and carriages sparkling through the leafless thickets of the park like winter fire-flies . At one o'clock , hearing Agatha Caithness speak to Leila 's maid , he left the window , and sitting down at the desk , telephoned to Desmond 's ; and he was informed that Mortimer , hard hit , had signified his intention of recouping at Burbank 's . Then he managed to get Burbank 's on the wire , and finally Mortimer himself , but was only cursed for his pains and cut off in the middle of his pleading . So he wandered up-stairs into Mortimer 's apartments , where he tubbed and dressed , and finally descended , to find Agatha Caithness alone in the library , spinning a roulette wheel and whistling an air from `` La Bacchante . '' `` That 's pretty , '' he said ; `` sing it . ''