six o'clock
The active sprang up the wide stairs at a bound , heaved in their bundles , or packets , or single missives , and heaved sighs of relief after them ; the timid stumbled on the stairs and blundered up to the mouth ; while the hasty almost plunged into it bodily . Even at this critical moment there were lulls in the rush . Once there was almost a dead pause , and at that moment an exquisite sauntered towards the mouth , dropped a solitary little letter down the slope where whole cataracts had been flowing , and turned away . He was almost carried off his legs by two youths from a lawyer 's office , who rushed up just as the first stroke of six o'clock rang out on the night air . Slowly and grandly it tolled from St. Paul 's , whose mighty dome was visible above the house-tops from the colonnade . During these fleeting moments a few dozens of late ones posted some hundreds of letters . With kindly consideration the authorities of St. Martin 's - le-Grand have set their timepieces one minute slow .