eleven o'clock
`` Most people do , you know . '' Then he turned back into his sitting-room and placing himself at his desk , took up his pen and accepted three invitations out of the round dozen he had to answer . This accomplished , the discreet Wilkins gave him his hat and coat and permitted him to depart rapidly upon his way . By eleven o'clock he was due at the office of the Confidential Life Insurance Company , of which he was one of the directors , and as he walked toward Broadway with his brisk and energetic step , he kept his mind closely upon the business affairs which were immediately before him . This peculiar ability to concentrate his whole being upon a single instant , to apply himself with enthusiasm to the thing beneath his eyes , was the quality of all others which had worked most not only for his present worldly success , but for his personal happiness as well . When he came out of his rooms the brief despondency of the morning had vanished as utterly as if it had never been , and until his wife 's name stared at him anew from a printed page , it was hardly probable that she would occur again to his thoughts . A feeling of peace , of perfect charity pervaded his breast , and had he been asked on the spot for an expression of his religious creed , he would , perhaps , have answered without hesitation , `` to live in pleasure and let live with pleasantness . ''