six o'clock
An hour or so later the painting was delivered by a porter from the auction room . But Lanyard was in his bath at the time and postponed examining his doubtful prize till he had dressed for dinner . For , though it was his whim to dine in his rooms alone , and though he had no fixed plans for the evening , Lanyard was too thoroughly cosmopolitan not to do in Cockaigne as the Cockneys do . Besides , in this uncertain life one never knows what the next hour will bring forth ; whereas if one is in evening dress after six o'clock , one is armoured against every emergency . At seven he sat down to the morbid sort of a meal one gets in London lodgings : a calm soup ; a segment of vague fish smothered painlessly in a pale pink blanket of sauce ; a cut from the joint , rare and lukewarm ; potatoes boiled dead ; sad sea-kale ; nonconformist pudding ; conservative biscuit , and radical cheese . With the aid and abetment of a bottle of excellent Montrachet , however , one contrived to worry through . Meanwhile , Lanyard inspected his recent purchase , which occupied a place of honour , propped up on the arms of the chair on his right .