five o'clock
Apparently he had as many friends and acquaintances as before , and yet he was haunted by a curious sense of solitude . Of a morning he would go out for a stroll along the familiar thoroughfares -- Bond Street , Conduit Street , Regent Street , where he knew all the shops at which Nina used to linger for a moment , to glance at a picture or a bonnet -- and these seemed altogether different now . He could not have imagined he should have missed Nina so much . Instead of dining in his rooms at five o'clock and thereafter walking down to Sloane Street to have a cup of tea with Nina and Mlle. Girond before they all three set out for the theatre , he spent most of his afternoons at the Garden Club , where there was a good deal of the game of poker being played by young gentlemen in the up-stairs rooms . And sometimes he returned thither after the performance , seeking anew the distraction of card-playing and betting , until he became notorious as the fiercest plunger in the place . Nobody could `` bluff '' Lionel Moore ; he would `` call '' his opponent if he himself had nothing better than a pair of twos ; and many a solid handful of sovereigns he had to pay for that privilege of gazing . Day after day went by , and still there was no word of Nina ; at times he was visited by sudden sharp misgivings that terrified him .