five minutes past nine
`` Right -- o ! '' assented Lowell , and returned to more prosaic studio art . The day wore itself to a glad end . The last exigent customer had gone , the curtains were up , the lights were out , and at five minutes past nine the released slave , meeting Tessie Kearns at her front door , escorted her with a high heart to the second show at the Bijou Palace . They debated staying out until after the wretched comedy had been run , but later agreed that they should see this , as Tessie keenly wished to know why people laughed at such things . The antics of the painfully cross-eyed man distressed them both , though the mental inferiors by whom they were surrounded laughed noisily . Merton wondered how any producer could bring himself to debase so great an art , and Tessie wondered if she had n't , in a way , been aiming over the public 's head with her scenarios .