three o'clock in the afternoon
The whole office had worked very hard on the drawings for that competition throughout the summer , while cursing the corporation which had chosen so unusual a date for sending-in day . Even Lucas had worked . George 's ideas for certain details , upon which he had been engaged on the evening of his introduction to Mr. Haim 's household , had been accepted by Mr. Enwright . As for Mr. Enwright , though the exigencies of his beard , and his regular morning habit of inveighing against the profession at great length , and his inability to decide where he should lunch , generally prevented him from beginning the day until three o'clock in the afternoon , Mr. Enwright had given many highly concentrated hours of creative energy to the design . And Mr. Haim had adorned the sheets with the finest lettering . The design was held to be very good . The principals knew the identity of all the other chief competitors and their powers , and they knew also the idiosyncrasies of the Assessor ; and their expert and impartial opinion was that the Lucas & Enwright design ought to win and would win .