about eleven o'clock
Mr. Scruby regarded them with attention , looking first at one side horizontally , and then at the other side perpendicularly . But before we learn the judgement pronounced by Mr. Scruby as to these four slips of paper , we must go back to their earlier history . As they were still in their infancy , we shall not have to go back far . One morning , at about eleven o'clock the parlour-maid came up to Alice , as she sat alone in the drawing-room in Queen Anne Street , and told her there was a `` gentleman '' in the hall waiting to be seen by her . We all know the tone in which servants announce a gentleman when they know that the gentleman is not a gentleman . `` A gentleman wanting to see me ! What sort of a gentleman ? ''