twelve o'clock
`` My house had been selling this man for several years . He handled a whole lot of goods but it worried the life out of me to get his bill . `` Last time I did business with him he had monkeyed with me all day long , and I had struck him as many as four times to go over to my sample room . If he had made a positive engagement and said that he would see me at twelve o'clock that night , it would have been all right ; but he would turn away with a grunt the subject of going to look at samples , not even giving me the satisfaction of saying he did n't want anything at all . `` I felt that I 'd spent time enough in the town so , after supper , I brought over a bunch of soft hats under my arm , and about nine o'clock he looked at them , picked out a few numbers , and said he had to go to lodge . I boned him about straw hats -- I was on my spring trip then . '' ` Look at them to-morrow , ' he grunted .