eight o’clock
`` You might just as well say that I 'd live ten years longer if everybody agreed to say that I 'm forty-eight instead of fifty-eight . I 'd still be fifty-eight in reality . It 's just the same with the time . We may all make up our minds to pretend it 's eight o'clock when it 's really seven , but it will still be seven . '' Mr. Courtney smiled in a gentle , but very annoying manner . `` My dear Sir Timothy , '' he said , `` do n't you see that what is really wanted is a complete change in the habits of the population ? We 've been gradually slipping into wasteful ways of living .