eight o'clock
Yet when a ray of sunshine fell upon him , and he lifted his eyes to the eastward promise , there shone in his countenance something one might vainly have sought through the streaming concourse of which Thomas Bird was an unregarded atom . For him , it appeared , the struggling sunlight had a message of hope . Trouble cleared from his face ; he smiled unconsciously and quickened his steps . For fifteen years he had walked to and fro over Blackfriars Bridge , leaving his home in Camberwell at eight o'clock and reaching it again at seven . Fate made him a commercial clerk as his father before him ; he earned more than enough for his necessities , but seemed to have reached the limit of promotion , for he had no influential friends , and he lacked the capacity to rise by his own efforts . There may have been some calling for which Thomas was exactly suited , but he did not know of it ; in the office he proved himself a trustworthy machine , with no opportunity of becoming anything else . His parents were dead , his kindred scattered , he lived , as for several years past , in lodgings .