one o'clock
In the meantime he satisfied himself with this section . He knew what was going on in workmen 's clubs , in places of amusement , in the market streets . There is a pleasure in surveying from a height the doing and driving of ordinary mortals ; a member for Vauxhall studying his borough in this spirit naturally comes to feel himself a sort of Grand Duke . It was one o'clock . There came a knock at the door , followed by the appearance of a middle-aged man who silently proclaimed himself a secretary . This was Mr. Tasker ; he had served Mr. Dalmaine thus for three years , prior to which he had been employed as a clerk at the works in Lambeth . Mr. Dalmaine first had his attention drawn to Tasker eight or nine years before , by an instance of singular shrewdness in the latter 's discharge of his duties .