seven o’clock
However , he would try it ; McGivney must be right , for it was the same thing Mrs. James had impressed upon him many times . You must watch what other people did , and practice by yourself , and then go in and do it as if you had never done anything else . All life was a gigantic bluff , and you encouraged yourself in your bluffing by the certainty that everybody else was bluffing just as hard . At seven o'clock that evening Peter strolled up to the magic bronze doors , and touched them ; and sure enough , the blue-uniformed guardians drew them back without a word , and the tiny brass-button imps never even glanced at Peter as he strode up to the desk and asked for Mr. Lackman . The haughty clerk passed him on to a still more haughty telephone operator , who condescended to speak into her trumpet , and then informed him that Mr. Lackman was out ; he had left word that he would return at eight . Peter was about to go out and wander about the streets for an hour , when he suddenly remembered that everybody else was bluffing ; so he marched across the lobby and seated himself in one of the huge leather arm-chairs , big enough to hold three of him . There he sat , and continued to sit -- and nobody said a word !