about eight in the evening
The marquis kept the cameo at his town house for a few days , showing it to his friends , and then returned it to Mr. Claridge to be finally and carefully cleaned before passing into the national collection . Two nights after Mr. Claridge 's premises were broken into and the cameo stolen . Such , in outline , was the generally known history of the Stanway Cameo . The circumstances of the burglary in detail were these : Mr. Claridge had himself been the last to leave the premises at about eight in the evening , at dusk , and had locked the small side door as usual . His assistant , Mr. Cutler , had left an hour and a half earlier . When Mr. Claridge left , everything was in order , and the policeman on fixed-point duty just opposite , who bade Mr. Claridge good-evening as he left , saw nothing suspicious during the rest of his term of duty , nor did his successors at the point throughout the night . In the morning , however , Mr. Cutler , the assistant , who arrived first , soon after nine o'clock , at once perceived that something unlooked-for had happened .