two
o'clock
As to impressing my personality upon them in any way , as I say , my uneasy thoughts in their presence were usually confined to the problem of how best I might escape without actual discredit . Once , I remember , in a very lean month , I chanced to see one of the Olympians passing with god-like nonchalance into the restaurant of a well-known hotel . On the instant , and without giving myself time for reflection , I followed him down the glittering vestibule , and into a palatial dining-hall . The hour was something between one and two o'clock , and a minute before I had been thoughtfully weighing the relative merits of an immediate allowance of sausages and mashed potatoes for fivepence , or a couple of stale buns for one penny , to be followed at nightfall by a real banquet -- seven-pennyworth of honest beef and vegetables . Now , with a trifle over four shillings in my pocket , I was , to outward seeming , carelessly scanning a menu , in which no single dish , not even the soup , seemed to cost less than about three times the price of one of my best dinners . But at the next table sat a London editor . I was free to contemplate him .