one o'clock
He could in nowise bring himself even to try to make up his mind -- that is , to make any true effort towards doing so . His thoughts would run off from him , not into the happy outer world , but into a multitude of noisy , unpleasant paths , all intimately connected with his present misery , but none of which led him at all towards the conclusions at which he would fain arrive . He kept on reflecting what Sir Gregory would think when he heard of it ; what all those clerks would say at the Weights and Measures , among whom he had held his head so high ; what shouts there would be among the navvies and other low pariahs of the service ; how Harry Norman would exult -- -LRB- but he did not yet know Harry Norman -RRB- ; -- how the Woodwards would weep ; how Gertrude -- and then as he thought of that he bowed his head , for he could no longer endure the open light of day . At one o'clock he was no nearer to any decision than he had been when he reached his office . At three he put himself into a cab , and was taken to the city . Oh , the city , the weary city , where men go daily to look for money , but find none ; where every heart is eaten up by an accursed famishing after gold ; where dark , gloomy banks come thick on each other , like the black , ugly apertures to the realms below in a mining district , each of them a separate little pit-mouth into hell . Alaric went into the city , and found that the shares were still rising .