three o’clock
A sobriety that might have consorted with failure sat in his handsome face , constructively regular and grave , yet at the same time oddly and , as might be , functionally almost radiant , with its dark blue eyes , its dark brown moustache and its expression no more sharply `` foreign '' to an English view than to have caused it sometimes to be observed of him with a shallow felicity that he looked like a `` refined '' Irishman . What had happened was that shortly before , at three o'clock , his fate had practically been sealed , and that even when one pretended to no quarrel with it the moment had something of the grimness of a crunched key in the strongest lock that could be made . There was nothing to do as yet , further , but feel what one had done , and our personage felt it while he aimlessly wandered . It was already as if he were married , so definitely had the solicitors , at three o'clock , enabled the date to be fixed , and by so few days was that date now distant . He was to dine at half-past eight o'clock with the young lady on whose behalf , and on whose father 's , the London lawyers had reached an inspired harmony with his own man of business , poor Calderoni , fresh from Rome and now apparently in the wondrous situation of being `` shown London , '' before promptly leaving it again , by Mr. Verver himself , Mr. Verver whose easy way with his millions had taxed to such small purpose , in the arrangements , the principle of reciprocity . The reciprocity with which the Prince was during these minutes most struck was that of Calderoni 's bestowal of his company for a view of the lions . If there was one thing in the world the young man , at this juncture , clearly intended , it was to be much more decent as a son-in-law than lots of fellows he could think of had shown themselves in that character .