three o'clock
Then , as the fancy moved him , he read a novel , wrote a few letters , or passed an hour in the studio dabbling with some sketches for the `` Last Enemy . '' Very often he put in the whole morning doing pen and inks of pretty , smartly dressed girls , after Gibson 's manner , which he gave away afterward to his friends . In the afternoon he read or picked the banjo or , sitting down to the little piano he had rented , played over his three pieces , the two polkas and the air of the topical song . At three o'clock , especially of Wednesday and Saturday afternoons , he bestirred himself , dressed very carefully , and went downtown to promenade Kearney and Market streets , stopping occasionally at the Imperial , where he sometimes found Ellis and Geary and where he took cocktails in their company . He rarely went out in the evenings ; his father 's death had changed all that , at least for a while . He had not seen Turner Ravis nor Henrietta Vance for nearly two months . Vandover took his greatest pleasure while in his new quarters , delighted to be pottering about his sitting-room by the hour , setting it to rights , rearranging the smaller ornaments , adjusting the calendar , winding the clock and , above all , tending the famous tiled stove .