eight o'clock
For his own part he would have given much to have escaped after the fish had been served , and to have gone out and explored the garden which had excited Mr. Geary to such poetic thoughts . Not a large eater -LRB- for the East End does not dare to cultivate an appetite -RRB- , he was easily satisfied ; and he found the mere length of the menu to be an ordeal which he would gladly have been spared . Why did people want all these dishes , he asked himself . Why , in well-to-do circles , is it considered necessary to serve precisely similar portions of fish and flesh and fowl every night at eight o'clock ? Men who work eat when they are disposed . Alban wondered what would happen if such a custom were introduced into the House of the Five Gables . A cynical reverie altogether -- from which the butler 's purring voice awakened him .