15:00
-LSB- Sidenote : _ Alcorn 's wild talent was miraculous ... he brought peace to everybody who came near him . Only one person was exempt -- himself ! _ -RSB- He was just emerging for the hundredth time during the week from the frightening hallucination that had come to plague him , when Kitty Murchinsom came into his office . `` It 's almost 15:00 , Philip , '' she said . When she had entered , her face had taken on the placid look that everyone wore -- unwittingly , but inevitably -- the instant they came near Alcorn . Finding Kitty 's cool blonde loveliness projected so abruptly against the bleak polar plain of his waking dream , he knew how much more she was than either fiancee or secretary alone . She was a beacon of reassurance in a sea of uncertainty .