noon
At noon the following day there was a large meeting at Gloucester House . There gathered the Beltons , Baron Wirsch , Griffenberg , and the titled and untitled folk who had been concerned in Sir Stephen Orme 's big scheme . And they were all gloomy and in a bad temper ; for all of them had lost money and some of them were well-nigh ruined by the collapse of the company which was to have made their fortunes . They came before noon , the appointed hour , and talked , sometimes in undertones , but not seldom in loud and complaining voices . By one and all the dead man was blamed for the ruin in which he had involved them . They had left the whole thing in his hands : he ought to have foreseen , ought to have taken proper precautions . They had been -- well , if not duped and deceived , the victims of his criminal sanguineness and carelessness .