one
o'clock
`` You had better , '' said Mrs. Billings . You may have noticed , my dear -LRB- said Mr. Billings -RRB- , that the initials on that handkerchief are `` T. M. C. , '' and I wish you to keep that in mind , for it has a great deal to do with this story . Had they been anything else that handkerchief would not have found its way into my pocket ; and when you see how those acorns and that handkerchief , and the half-filled nursing-bottle and the auburn-red curls all combined to keep me out of my home until the unearthly hour of three A. M. , you will forget the unjust suspicions which I too sadly fear you now hold against me , and you will admit that a half-filled patent nursing-bottle , a trio of curls , a lady 's handkerchief and twelve acorns were the most natural things in the world to find in my pockets . When I had left the poor woman with her no-longer-starving baby I hurriedly glanced into a store window , and by the clock there saw it was twenty minutes of one and that I had exactly time to catch the one o'clock train , which is the last train that runs to Westcote . I glanced up and down the street , but not a car was in sight , and I knew I could not afford to wait long if I wished to catch that train . There was but one thing to do , and that was to take a cab , and , as luck would have it , at that moment an automobile cab came rapidly around the corner . I raised my voice and my arm , and the driver saw or heard me , for he made a quick turn in the street and drew up at the curb beside me .