four o'clock
With an absurdly resolute intention to `` play the game '' every bit as genuinely as Miss Serial-Letter Co. was playing it , Stanton refrained quite heroically from opening the third dose of news until at least two big , resonant city clocks had insisted that the hour was ripe . By that time the grin in his face was almost bright enough of itself to illuminate any ordinary page . `` I am lame , '' confided the third message somewhat depressingly . Then snugglingly in parenthesis like the tickle of lips against his ear whispered the one phrase : `` My picture is in the fourth paper , -- if you should happen still to be awake at four o'clock . '' Where now was Stanton 's boasted sense of honor concerning the ethics of playing the game according to directions ? `` Wait a whole hour to see what Molly looked like ? Well he guessed not ! ''