four
o'clock
For the first few months after the seizure Vandover was furious with rage and disappointment , persuaded that he could never live anywhere but in just such a room ; it was as if he had been uprooted and cast away upon some barren , uncongenial soil . His new room in the hotel filled him with horror , and for a long time he used it only as a place where he could sleep and wash . For a long time even his pliable character refused to fit itself to such surroundings , refused to be content between four enormous white walls , a stuccoed ceiling , and a dark red carpet . He passed most of his time elsewhere , reading the papers at the Mechanics Library in the morning , and in the afternoon sitting about the hotel office and parlours until it was time to take his usual little four o'clock stroll on Kearney and Market streets . He had long since become a familiar figure on this promenade . Even the women and girls of Flossie 's type had ceased to be interested in this tall , thin young man with the tired , heavy eyes and blue-white face . One day , however , a curious incident did for a moment invest Vandover with a sudden dramatic interest .