six o’clock
Moreover , it is one of those nooks which are legal nooks ; and it contains a little Hall , with a little lantern in its roof : to what obstructive purposes devoted , and at whose expense , this history knoweth not . In the days when Cloisterham took offence at the existence of a railroad afar off , as menacing that sensitive constitution , the property of us Britons : the odd fortune of which sacred institution it is to be in exactly equal degrees croaked about , trembled for , and boasted of , whatever happens to anything , anywhere in the world : in those days no neighbouring architecture of lofty proportions had arisen to overshadow Staple Inn . The westering sun bestowed bright glances on it , and the south-west wind blew into it unimpeded . Neither wind nor sun , however , favoured Staple Inn one December afternoon towards six o'clock , when it was filled with fog , and candles shed murky and blurred rays through the windows of all its then-occupied sets of chambers ; notably from a set of chambers in a corner house in the little inner quadrangle , presenting in black and white over its ugly portal the mysterious inscription : P J T In which set of chambers , never having troubled his head about the inscription , unless to bethink himself at odd times on glancing up at it , that haply it might mean Perhaps John Thomas , or Perhaps Joe Tyler , sat Mr. Grewgious writing by his fire . Who could have told , by looking at Mr. Grewgious , whether he had ever known ambition or disappointment ? He had been bred to the Bar , and had laid himself out for chamber practice ; to draw deeds ; ` convey the wise it call , ' as Pistol says .