eleven o'clock
At the Benedict he found that his man had not come home , and for an hour or two he walked the streets . The city seemed less majestic to him than usual ; its quiet by-streets were lined with homes , it is true , but those very streets hid also vice and degradation , and ugly passions . They sheltered , but also they concealed . At eleven o'clock he went back to the Benedict , and was told that Mr. Akers had come in . It was Akers himself who opened the door . Because the night was hot he had shed coat and shirt , and his fine torso , bare to the shoulders and at the neck , gleamed in the electric light . Willy Cameron had not seen him since those spring days when he had made his casual , bold-eyed visits to Edith at the pharmacy , and he had a swift insight into the power this man must have over women .