about five o'clock
For the first time since I had known Theodore Watling , however , I saw him in the shadow of another individual ; a man who , like a powerful magnet , continually drew our glances . When we spoke , we almost invariably addressed him , his rare words fell like bolts upon the consciousness . There was no apparent rift in that personality . When , about five o'clock , the conference was ended and we were dismissed , United States Senator , railroad presidents , field-marshals of the law , the great banker fell into an eager conversation with Grolier over the Canon on Divorce , the subject of warm debate in the convention that day . Grolier , it appeared , had led his party against the theological liberals . He believed that law was static , but none knew better its plasticity ; that it was infallible , but none so well as he could find a text on either side . His reputation was not of the popular , newspaper sort , but was known to connoisseurs , editors , financiers , statesmen and judges , -- to those , in short , whose business it is to make themselves familiar with the instruments of power .