about eleven o'clock
`` I do n't know -- perhaps I may be back before -- but at any rate we meet at seven . You will remember -- seven ? '' `` Indeed I am not likely to forget it , '' his companion said , for he had been told about five-and-thirty times . It was about eleven o'clock when Macleod left the house . There was a grateful freshness about the morning even here in the middle of London . People looked cheerful ; Piccadilly was thronged with idlers come out to enjoy the sunshine ; there was still a leaf or two fluttering on the trees in the square . Why should this man go eagerly tearing away northward in a hansom -- with an anxious and absorbed look on his face -- when everybody seemed inclined to saunter leisurely along , breathing the sweet wind , and feeling the sunlight on their cheek ?