four o'clock in the morning
Such a journal only existed on the assumption that its working expenses were covered by the advertisements of certain publishing houses . But if this necessity committed him to a more courteous attitude than he might otherwise have adopted towards the works issued by those houses , that was not saying that he was in their pay . He was , of course , in the pay of his own publishers , but so was every man who drew a salary under the same conditions ; and if those gentlemen , finding their editor an even more competent person than they had at first perceived , were in the habit of increasing his salary in proportion to his competence , that was only the very correct and natural expression of their good opinion . Whatever he had thought of himself at four o'clock in the morning , by four o'clock in the afternoon Jewdwine took an extremely lenient , not to say favourable view . Unfortunately he had not the courage of that opinion either . Therefore he was profoundly touched by this final instance of Rickman 's devotion , and all that it argued of reckless and inspired belief . In the six months that followed he saw more of Rickman than he had seen in as many years .