eight o'clock
If I take his money from him , he is helpless -- a viper without its fangs , a bear with its back broken ! '' Richard put in that evening in his own apartments . Had you been there to watch his face , you would have been struck by the capacity for hate and love and thought displayed in the lowering brow and brooding eye . Richard smoked and considered ; at eight o'clock he rang for Mr. Gwynn . That precise gentleman of stiffness and English immobility appeared , clothed in extreme evening dress , and established himself , ramrod-like , in a customary spot in the center of the floor . There was a figure on the Persian rug whereon Mr. Gwynn never failed to take position . Once in place , eye as expressionless as the eye of a fish , Mr. Gwynn would wait in dead silence for Richard to speak .