quarter past eight
Like most residents of Hampton who did not work in the mills , he ministered to those who did , or to those who sold merchandise to the workers , cutting their hair in his barber shop on Faber Street . The Bumpuses , save Lise , clinging to a native individualism and pride , preferred isolation to companionship with the other pieces of driftwood by which they were surrounded , and with which the summer season compelled a certain enforced contact . When the heat in the little dining-room grew unbearable , they were driven to take refuge on the front steps shared in common with the household of the barber . It is true that the barber 's wife was a mild hausfrau who had little to say , and that their lodgers , two young Germans who worked in the mills , spent most of their evenings at a bowling club ; but Auermann himself , exhaling a strong odour of bay rum , would arrive promptly at quarter past eight , take off his coat , and thus , as it were stripped for action , would turn upon the defenceless Edward . `` Vill you mention one great man -- yoost one -- who is not greater if the vimmen leave him alone ? '' he would demand . `` Is it Anthony , the conqueror of Egypt and the East ?