seven o'clock
That is what has happened to our folks below . But they _ are _ behaving handsomely . '' `` Yes , and I do n't like it . '' Since seven o'clock the most unimpeachable decorum had reigned in the workshops . It was now nine , and this brief dialogue had occurred between Mr. Slocum and Richard on the veranda , just as the latter was on the point of descending into the yard to have his talk with the men . The workshops -- or rather the shed in which the workshops were , for it was one low structure eighteen or twenty feet wide and open on the west side -- ran the length of the yard , and with the short extension at the southerly end formed the letter L . There were no partitions , an imaginary line separating the different gangs of workers .