half past three
I will come at four o'clock . Affectionately and sorrowfully , T.C. ' With this missive -LRB- which I was in twenty minds at once about recalling , as soon as it was out of my hands -RRB- , the ticket-porter at last departed . If the day were half as tremendous to any other professional gentleman in Doctors ' Commons as it was to me , I sincerely believe he made some expiation for his share in that rotten old ecclesiastical cheese . Although I left the office at half past three , and was prowling about the place of appointment within a few minutes afterwards , the appointed time was exceeded by a full quarter of an hour , according to the clock of St. Andrew 's , Holborn , before I could muster up sufficient desperation to pull the private bell-handle let into the left-hand door-post of Mr. Waterbrook 's house . The professional business of Mr. Waterbrook 's establishment was done on the ground-floor , and the genteel business -LRB- of which there was a good deal -RRB- in the upper part of the building . I was shown into a pretty but rather close drawing-room , and there sat Agnes , netting a purse . She looked so quiet and good , and reminded me so strongly of my airy fresh school days at Canterbury , and the sodden , smoky , stupid wretch I had been the other night , that , nobody being by , I yielded to my self-reproach and shame , and -- in short , made a fool of myself .