two o'clock
Hour after hour he sat with the note before him . His good angel stood at his side and wooed him to mercy . There was a fire burning in the grate , and twice he held the paper over it , and twice turned away from his better self . The watchman was calling `` half-past two o'clock , '' when , cold and weary with his mental struggle , he rose and went to his desk . There was a secret hiding-place behind a drawer there , in which he kept papers relating to his transactions with Andrew Starkie , and he put it among them . `` I 'll leave it to its chance , '' he muttered ; `` a fire might come and burn it up some day . If it is God 's will to save Donald , he could so order it , and I am fully insured against pecuniary loss . ''