about eight o'clock in the morning
replied the girl , with a laugh . The memory of those three macaroons had to stand Smith in the stead of other things for the last days of November . On his arrival at the office on the morning following Thanksgiving Day , Mr. O'Connor requested him to go down to Baltimore on company business requiring some little time to transact , and not until after the first of December did he set foot again in New York . He arrived at about eight o'clock in the morning ; and as he was obliged to go home first , he did not reach William Street until nearly ten . As he entered the Guardian office , he was aware that something unusual had happened . Business seemed somehow to have been oddly interrupted . Around the map desks and file cases little groups of clerks were gathered , talking in low tones .