eight o’clock in the evening
To the public it would be worse than repulsive -- tedious , utterly uninteresting . No matter ; it drew to its end . The day of its completion was made memorable by an event decidedly more exciting , even to the author . At eight o'clock in the evening there remained half a page to be written . Biffen had already worked about nine hours , and on breaking off to appease his hunger he doubted whether to finish to-night or to postpone the last lines till tomorrow . The discovery that only a small crust of bread lay in the cupboard decided him to write no more ; he would have to go out to purchase a loaf and that was disturbance . But stay ; had he enough money ?