one o'clock
` Ho ! Martin , ' he cried across the street , seeing that functionary just about to turn the corner by Sturk 's hall-door steps ; ` a word with you . I 've been looking for you . See , you must take a foot-rule , and make all the measurements of that pew , you know ; do n't mistake a hair 's breadth , d'ye mind , for you must be ready to swear to it ; and bring a note of it to me , at home , to-day , at one o'clock , and you shall have a crown-piece . ' From which the reader will perceive -- as all the world might , if they had happened to see him enter the church just now -- that his object in the visit was to see and speak with Martin ; and that the little bit of banter with Irons , the clerk , was all by-play , and parenthesis , and beside the main business , and , of course , of no sort of consequence . Mr. Irons , like most men of his rank in life , was not much in the habit of exact thinking . His ruminations , therefore , were rather confused , but , perhaps , they might be translated in substance , into something like this -- ` Why the -- ca n't he let them alone that 's willing to let him alone ?