five o'clock
The secret history of almost every man or woman who has mixed at all in polite society is sure to be known by some one or other in the clubs and drawing-rooms . If there is anything to your discredit in your past life , anything which you would blot out if you could with rivers of repentance or expiation , you may be pretty sure that at some time , when you might least expect it , this thing has been , or will be , the subject of discourse and dissection amongst your friends . It may not be told in an injurious or exaggerated manner , and it may not travel far ; but none the less do you walk on treacherous shale , which may give way at any moment under your feet . The art of living , if you are afraid of the passing of your secret from the few who know to the many who welcome a new scandal , is to go on walking with the light and confident step of youth , never so much as quailing in your own mind at the thought that the ground may crumble beneath you -- that you may go home some fine day , or to your club , or to Lady Jane 's five o'clock tea , and be confronted by the grinning skeleton on whom you had so carefully turned your keys and shot your bolts . No doubt there are men and women so refined and kindly in their nature that they have absolutely no appetite for scandal -- never speak it , or listen to it , or remember what they have overheard . Sydney and his friends were troubled by no such qualms , and , if either of them had been , he would not have been so ill-mannered as to spoil sport for the rest . After dinner they had gone upstairs to the members ' smoking room , in a comfortable corner of which they were lazily continuing their conversation .