eight o'clock
the girl replied in the same dull tone as before . `` Upon my word , '' exclaimed Mrs. Malplaquet , `` you might have told me that we were going to my own place ... '' But Strangwise shut her up . `` Bellward and I will come on by tube ... it is safer , '' he said , `` hurry , hurry ! We must all be under cover by eight o'clock ... we have no time to lose ! '' The hour of the theatre rush was long since over and its passing had transformed the taxi-drivers from haughty autocrats to humble suppliants . One taxi after another crawled slowly past the street corner where Desmond had stood for over an hour in deep converse with Gunner Barling , but neither flaunting flag nor appealingly uplifted finger attracted the slightest attention from the athletic-looking man who was so earnestly engaged in talk with a tramp . But at last the conversation was over ; the two men separated and the next taxi passing thereafter picked up a fare .