seven o'clock
Arrived at his door , Anthony turned and looked upward . The cold white brilliance of the stars stared winking back ; the frozen silence of the firmament hung like a magic cloak upon the shoulders of darkness ; the pool of Night lay in a breathless trance , ice-cold and fathomless . Anthony opened the door and passed in . Within three minutes the lamp and lantern were lighted and a fire was crackling upon the hearth ; within ten , fuel had been fetched and water drawn from the well ; within twenty , the few odd jobs on whose performance the comfort of regularity depended , had been disposed of ; and by seven o'clock the Sealyham had had his dinner , and his master , washed and groomed , was free to sit down to a substantial meal . At the first glance , the latter 's dress was highly reminiscent of the warfare so lately dead . The shade and stuff of the stout breeches , the heavy ankle boots , the grey shirt-cuff emerging from the sleeve of the coarse cardigan , were old familiar friends . The fact that Lyveden had laid aside his collar heightened the comparison .