about ten o'clock
But in Hong Kong I had become great pals with an officer in your navy , who has since retired , and who is now living in a small house in Rutland Gardens , opposite the Knightsbridge Barracks . I telegraphed him that I was in London , and yesterday morning I received a most hearty invitation to dine with him the same evening at his house . He is a bachelor , so we dined alone and talked over all our old days on the Asiatic Station and of the changes which had come to us since we had last met there . As I was leaving the next morning for my post at Petersburg , and had many letters to write , I told him , about ten o'clock , that I must get back to the hotel , and he sent out his servant to call a hansom . `` For the next quarter of an hour , as we sat talking , we could hear the cab-whistle sounding , violently , from the doorstep , but apparently with no result . `` ` It can not be that the cabmen are on strike , ' my friend said , as he rose and walked to the window . `` He pulled back the curtains and at once called to me .