one o'clock
`` Oh -- it 's one of these crazy schemes . '' `` It might not be . At least it 'd be experience . '' At her urging he went at one o'clock to the appointed address , where he found himself one of a dense miscellany of men waiting in front of the door . They ranged from a messenger-boy evidently misusing his company 's time to an immemorial individual with a gnarled body and a gnarled cane . Some of the men were seedy , with sunken cheeks and puffy pink eyes -- others were young ; possibly still in high school . After a jostled fifteen minutes during which they all eyed one another with apathetic suspicion there appeared a smart young shepherd clad in a `` waist-line '' suit and wearing the manner of an assistant rector who herded them up-stairs into a large room , which resembled a school-room and contained innumerable desks .