about eight o'clock
That night the cook 's sister had a baby -- the cook , seeing indecision in my face , made it twins on second thought -- and , to be short , by noon the next day the household staff was down to Liddy and myself . And this in a house with twenty-two rooms and five baths ! Liddy wanted to go back to the city at once , but the milk-boy said that Thomas Johnson , the Armstrongs ' colored butler , was working as a waiter at the Greenwood Club , and might come back . I have the usual scruples about coercing people 's servants away , but few of us have any conscience regarding institutions or corporations -- witness the way we beat railroads and street-car companies when we can -- so I called up the club , and about eight o'clock Thomas Johnson came to see me . Poor Thomas ! Well , it ended by my engaging Thomas on the spot , at outrageous wages , and with permission to sleep in the gardener 's lodge , empty since the house was rented . The old man -- he was white-haired and a little stooped , but with an immense idea of his personal dignity -- gave me his reasons hesitatingly .