about nine o'clock in the evening
` Look there -- read that -- ' Alma took the paper . She had an instantaneous foreboding of what she was to see ; her heart stood still , and her eyes dazzled , but at length she read . On the previous evening -LRB- said the report -RRB- , a gentleman residing at Wimbledon , and well known in fashionable circles , Mr. Cyrus Redgrave , had met his death under very strange and startling circumstances . Only a few particulars could as yet be made public ; but it appeared that , about nine o'clock in the evening , a medical man had been hastily summoned to Mr. Redgrave 's house , and found that gentleman lying dead in a room that opened upon the garden . There was present another person , a friend of the deceased -LRB- name not mentioned -RRB- , who made a statement to the effect that , in consequence of a sudden quarrel , he had struck Mr. Redgrave with his fist , knocking him down , and , as it proved , killing him on the spot . Up to the present moment no further details were obtainable , but it was believed that the self-accused assailant had put himself in communication with the police . There was a rumour , too , which might or might not have any significance , that Mr. Redgrave 's housekeeper had suddenly left the house and could not be traced .