midnight
He grasped an ill-folded umbrella , and set forth at a brisk walk , as if for the neighbouring station . But the railway was not his goal , nor yet the omnibus . Through the ambrosial night he walked and walked , at the steady pace of one accustomed to pedestrian exercise : from Notting Hill Gate to the Marble Arch ; from the Marble Arch to New Oxford Street ; thence by Theobald 's Road to Pentonville , and up , and up , until he attained the heights of his own salubrious quarter . Long after midnight he entered a narrow byway , which the pale moon showed to be decent , though not inviting . He admitted himself with a latchkey to a little house which smelt of glue , lit a candle-end which he found in his pocket , and ascended two flights of stairs to a back bedroom , its size eight feet by seven and a half . A few minutes more , and he lay sound asleep . Waking at eight o'clock -- he knew the time by a bell that clanged in the neighbourhood -- Mr. Tymperley clad himself with nervous haste .