the hour of
eleven o'clock
Helen Cumberly absorbed his entire attention ; in everything he sought to claim her interest ; and when , ere taking their departure , the girl and her friend walked around the studio to view the other pictures , Gianapolis was the attendant cavalier , and so well as one might judge , in his case , his glance rarely strayed from the piquant beauty of Helen . When they departed , it was Gianapolis , and not Olaf van Noord , who escorted them to the door and downstairs to the street . The red lips of the Eurasian smiled upon her circle of adulators , but her eyes -- her unfathomable eyes -- followed every movement of the Greek . Four men sauntered up the grand staircase and entered the huge smoking-room of the Radical Club as Big Ben was chiming the hour of eleven o'clock . Any curious observer who had cared to consult the visitor 's book in the hall , wherein the two lines last written were not yet dry , would have found the following entries : VISITOR RESIDENCE INTROD ` ING MEMBER Dr. Bruce Cumberly London John Exel M. Gaston Paris Brian Malpas The smoking-room was fairly full , but a corner near the big open grate had just been vacated , and here , about a round table , the four disposed themselves . Our French acquaintance being in evening dress had perforce confined himself in his sartorial eccentricities to a flowing silk knot in place of the more conventional , neat bow . He was already upon delightfully friendly terms with the frigid Exel and the aristocratic Sir Brian Malpas .