nine o'clock
On the last day of the month there was a meeting of the directors in the closed room off the President 's own . It was a short meeting , and Mr. Wintermuth did the most of the talking , while Mr. Whitehill , who had advocated the election of Mr. Gunterson , had little to say . And so it befell that the directors , after voting him salary in advance for a liberal term , accepted the resignation from the Guardian of Samuel Gunterson ; and to fill the vacancy so created , there was unanimously elected to be Vice-President and under-writing manager , Richard Smith . Smith took office at nine o'clock on the first business day of April . The fifteen minutes following were spent by him in patiently listening to Mr. Wintermuth 's diagnosis of the various ills with which the Guardian was afflicted , related supposedly for his education . When the first pause was reached , the new Vice-President said : -- `` I 've followed things pretty carefully , sir ; and with what you have just told me I think I know about where we stand . We 're certainly in bad shape at present , from the agency standpoint , but it 's by no means hopeless .