four o'clock
I lived a stone 's - throw away from his house in Harley Street , just round the corner in Harley Place , and it was my duty to take charge of his extensive practice during his absence at night or while on holidays . I must here declare that my own position was not at all disagreeable . True , I sometimes had night work , which is never very pleasant , but being one of the evils of the life of every medical man he accepts it as such . I had very comfortable bachelor quarters in an ancient and rather grimy house , with an old fashioned dark-panelled sitting-room , a dining-room , bedroom and dressing-room , and , save for the fact that I was compelled to be on duty after four o'clock , when Sir Bernard drove to Victoria Station , my time in the evening was very much my own . Many a man would , I suppose , have envied me . It is not every day that a first-class physician requires an assistant , and certainly no man could have been more generous and kindly disposed than Sir Bernard himself , even though his character was something of the miser . Yet all of us find some petty shortcomings in the good things of this world , and I was no exception .