seven minutes past eight
It was not Belding 's fault that the money ran out , but he had ceased operations with an unshakable sense of personal blame that , of late , worked poisonously in his brain . There were also the Bowers , and Mrs. Bowers ' ample and genial person was full of a pleasurable glow , for if the mayor 's plan went through they would have at last a roof over the front porch on which she spent so many hospitable summer evenings . Bowers himself already saw in Clark a possible and important client , and his brain was full of half formulated propositions . At seven minutes past eight the mayor began to speak . He had been somewhat at a loss just how he might introduce Clark , for , as a matter of fact , the only information he had about the visitor was what the visitor himself had volunteered . But here , as always , Clark 's tremendous personality had expressed itself . Filmer glanced at his alert but motionless figure , and perceived that the other was a man of much greater experience and power than himself , and in this the mayor was subject to exactly that influence which Clark was in the habit of exerting without any effort whatever .