half past one
All the rooms were painted alike , in salmon-colour with a high dado of maroon ; and there was in them an odour of disinfectants , mingling as the afternoon wore on with the crude stench of humanity . The first room was the largest and in the middle of it were a table and an office chair for the physician ; on each side of this were two smaller tables , a little lower : at one of these sat the house-physician and at the other the clerk who took the ` book ' for the day . This was a large volume in which were written down the name , age , sex , profession , of the patient and the diagnosis of his disease . At half past one the house-physician came in , rang the bell , and told the porter to send in the old patients . There were always a good many of these , and it was necessary to get through as many of them as possible before Dr. Tyrell came at two . The H.P. with whom Philip came in contact was a dapper little man , excessively conscious of his importance : he treated the clerks with condescension and patently resented the familiarity of older students who had been his contemporaries and did not use him with the respect he felt his present position demanded . He set about the cases .