eight o'clock
This time , they did not spoil its flavor . The fishermen had been shy folk who fled from the alien invasion ; no shyness about South-of-Market people on a holiday ! This Sanguinetti dinner party of Sydney Masters 's differed but slightly , after all , from other slumming parties in the hostelry of touch-and-go familiarities . Amused outsiders , they watched the growth of swift flirtations , passed comments on the overdressed women , joined in the latest Orpheum songs which started when the cheap wine made music in the throat , chucked quarters into the banjoes of the two negro minstrels who came in at eight o'clock to stimulate merriment . Bertram , in his position as jester to King Masters , went a little further than the others . It was he who bought out the stock of a small Italian flower-vendor , that he might present a bouquet `` to every lady in the place . '' His attention brought from the ladies varying degrees of gratitude , and from their escorts degrees of resentment which varied still more .