four o'clock
He felt that it was perhaps a little ungracious to go without a word to the ladies ; but he was tired ; he was unaccustomed to town society , and the service he had been able to render seemed to him so slight that he was modestly eager to efface himself . Leaving the carriage in the hands of one of the lackeys , with a few words of explanation , he hastened on towards Holborn and the city . Chapter 7 : In which Colonel Clive suffers an unrecorded defeat ; and our hero finds food for reflection . It was four o'clock , and Tuesday afternoon -- the day before the Good Intent was to sail from the Pool . Desmond was kicking his heels in his inn , longing for the morrow . Even now he had not seen the vessel on which he was to set forth in quest of his fortune . She lay in the Pool , but Diggle had found innumerable reasons why Desmond should not visit her until he embarked for good and all .