three o'clock
` So now I was obstinate , and I said _ Three o'clock _ . He took out his watch . ` Why damn you , how did you know ? I give you a shilling -- ' It was three o'clock , as I said , so he gave me a shilling instead of sixpence as he had said -- '' It was strange , in the silent winter afternoon , downstairs in the black kitchen , to sit drinking a cup of tea with Pancrazio and hearing these stories of English painters . It was strange to look at the battered figure of Pancrazio , and think how much he had been crucified through the long years in London , for the sake of late Victorian art . It was strangest of all to see through his yellow , often dull , red-rimmed eyes these blithe and well-conditioned painters . Pancrazio looked on them admiringly and contemptuously , as an old , rakish tom-cat might look on such frivolous well-groomed young gentlemen .