a quarter past seven
He waited until they were seated , then joined them and proceeded to make himself agreeable to the one who had just been introduced to him -- young Horwitz , an assistant bookkeeper at a department store in Twenty-third Street . But Horwitz had a `` soul , '' and the yearning of that secret soul was for the stage . Feuerstein did Horwitz the honor of dining with him . At a quarter past seven , with his two dollars intact , with a loan of one dollar added to it , and with five of his original ten cents , he took himself away to the theater . Afterward , by appointment , he met his new friend , and did him the honor of accompanying him to the Young German Shooters ' Society ball at Terrace Garden . It was one of those simple , entirely and genuinely gay entertainments that assemble the society of the real New York -- the three and a half millions who work and play hard and live plainly and without pretense , whose ideals center about the hearth , and whose aspirations are to retire with a competence early in the afternoon of life , thenceforth placidly to assist in the prosperity of their children and to have their youth over again in their grandchildren . Feuerstein 's gaze wandered from face to face among the young women , to pause at last upon a dark , handsome , strong-looking daughter of the people .