five o'clock
`` Hold the pool in fighting trim at all hazards . Think I have found weak link in the chain , '' was his wire to Loring , at Boston ; and having sent it , he went around to Cassatti 's and astonished the waiter by ordering a hearty luncheon at half-past three o'clock in the afternoon . It was late in the evening before he left the tiny office on the fifth floor of the Quintard Building where one of his former stenographers had set up in business for herself . Since five o'clock the young woman had been steadily driving the type-writer to Kent 's dictation . When the final sheet came out with a whirring rasp of the ratchet , he suddenly remembered that he had promised Miss Van Brock to dine with her . It was too late for the dinner , but not too late to go and apologize , and he did the thing that he could , stopping at his rooms on the way to dress while his cab-driver waited . He found Portia alone , for which he was glad ; but her greeting was distinctly accusative .