nearly twenty minutes past ten
Now , his mind aglow with roseate possibilities , he stepped from the tram in the neighborhood of Shoreditch , and chartered a taxi-cab . From this he descended at the corner of Arundel Street and strolled along westward in the direction of the hotel patronized by Miss Ryland . At a corner from which he could command a view of the entrance , he paused and consulted his watch . It was nearly twenty minutes past ten . Mentally , he cursed Mahara , who perhaps had caused him to let slip this golden opportunity . But his was not a character easily discouraged ; he lighted a cigarette and prepared himself to wait , in the hope that the girl had not yet left her friend . Gianapolis was a man capable of the uttermost sacrifices upon either of two shrines ; that of Mammon , or that of Eros .