about eight o'clock
`` Yes , is n't it strange ? ... You come this way from business ? '' she said . `` Yes ; about eight o'clock is my time . '' It was the end of August ; the stars caught fire slowly in the murky London sunset ; and , vaguely conscious of a feeling of surprise at the pleasure they took in each other 's company , they wandered round a little bleak square in which a few shrubs had just been planted . They took up the conversation exactly at the point where it had been broken off . `` I 'm sorry , '' Fred said , `` that the paper is n't going to be put to better use . ''