ten minutes past seven
`` Old ! Why , he 's only a boy , but he 's got all a man 's ways with him -- he 's American , they 're like that . I 've heard say the American children order their own mothers and fathers about and drive their own motor-cars and gamble on the Stock Exchange . '' He pulled out his watch and looked at it ; it pointed to ten minutes past seven ; then he lit a cigar and sat smoking and smoking without a word whilst Phyl sat thinking and staring at the fire . They were seated like this when the door opened and Byrne shewed in Mr. Pinckney . Hennessey had called him a boy . He was not that .