five o'clock in the evening
I have suffered all my life from a certain Scotch vivacity of temperament which it has cost me many and many a hard struggle to control . It has not often been more unreasonable or more vigorous in its internal demonstrations than it was then , but I managed to reach the street and to walk away without exposing myself . As to where I went for the next few hours I never had the remotest idea . I must have walked a good many miles , for at last , when I pulled up , I found myself , at five o'clock in the evening , in a part of the town to which I was a complete stranger , and I had a confused remembrance of Oxford Street and the parks , and then of Highgate Archway . I made out , after a while , that I was at the East End , and , turning westward , I tramped back to my own lodgings with a return to self-possession which was partly due to the fact that bodily fatigue had dulled the sting of resentment . Hinge had dinner ready when I reached home , but I had no appetite for it , and , to the good fellow 's dismay , I sent it away untasted . I turned over a thousand schemes that evening , and rejected each in turn .