four o'clock
_ '' this _ planton _ roared . Slowly we filed through the tiny hall , past the stairs -LRB- empty now of their Napoleonic burden -RRB- , down the corridor , up the creaking gnarled damp flights , and -LRB- after the inevitable pause in which the escort rattled chains and locks -RRB- into The Enormous Room . This would be about ten thirty . Just what I tasted , did , smelled , saw , and heard , not to mention touched , between ten thirty and the completion of the evening meal -LRB- otherwise the four o'clock soup -RRB- I am quite at a loss to say . Whether it was that glass of _ pinard _ -LRB- plus , or rather times , the astonishing exhaustion bequeathed me by my journey of the day before -RRB- which caused me to enter temporarily the gates of forgetfulness , or whether the sheer excitement attendant upon my ultra-novel surroundings proved too much for an indispensable part of my so-called mind -- I do not in the least know . I am fairly certain that I went on afternoon promenade . After which I must surely have mounted to await my supper in The Enormous Room .