nine
o'clock
`` You shall be treasurer and business-manager in my reorganized company , '' said Rushcroft . `` With your acumen and my eccentricity united in a common cause we will stagger the universe . '' Despite his rehabilitation as a gentleman of means and independence , Mr. Rushcroft could not forego the pleasure of staggering a small section of the world that very night . He was giving Hamlet 's address to the players in the tap-room when Barnes came downstairs at nine o'clock . Bacon and Dillingford having returned earlier in the evening with the trunks , bags and other portable chattels of the defunct `` troupe , '' Mr. Rushcroft was performing in a sadly wrinkled Norfolk suit of grey which Dillingford was under solemn injunction to press before breakfast the next morning . `` I know I do n't have to do it , '' said the star , catching the surprised look in Barnes 's eye and pausing to explain , sotto voce , `` but I had n't the heart to refuse . They 're eating it up , my dear fellow .