nearly ten
o'clock
I have n't been in such a place these five years . Where are you staying , old boy ? '' The Major told them , and they agreed to meet at breakfast next morning . Then , after many farewells , and callings back , he pursued his way towards the Strand , finding to his disgust that it was nearly ten o'clock . He , nevertheless , held on his way undiscouraged , and turning by degrees into narrower and narrower streets , came at last on one quieter than the others , which ended abruptly at the river . It was a quiet street , save at one point , and that was where a blaze of gas -LRB- then recently introduced , and a great object of curiosity to the Major -RRB- was thrown across the street , from the broad ornamented windows of a flash public-house . Here there was noise enough .