five o'clock
`` I never think of him as a man , '' the girl replied , simply . `` He is so far above and beyond any man I have ever known that I have never thought of him as only that . '' A week later the Gorhams ' dinner-table received two unexpected additions . Gorham had returned from Chicago earlier in the day , and found a telegram awaiting him which announced that Senator Kenmore would call at his house at five o'clock that afternoon . As he was unable to complete his work upon the accumulated matters which demanded immediate attention , he put the papers into his bag , and took Allen with him to the house in time to keep his appointment with the Senator , intending to continue his day 's labors after his caller had departed . During the weeks which had elapsed since Gorham 's conversation with Allen , the boy 's attitude toward him manifested a respect so marked that the older man saw in it an effort to atone for his momentary disloyalty ; in his work he was devoted and exact to a degree beyond anything he had previously demonstrated ; inwardly he was the investigator . Never had he put himself through so merciless a self-examination .