seven o’clock
`` You are generally dull , Horace , '' she said , `` but tonight you are deadly . '' After dinner I went into our reception room , which is not lighted unless we are expecting guests , and peered out of the window . The detective , or whoever he might be , was walking negligently up the street . As that was the night of the third seance , I find that my record covers the fact that Mrs. Dane was housecleaning , for which reason we had not been asked to dinner , that my wife and I dined early , at six-thirty , and that it was seven o'clock when Sperry called me by telephone . `` Can you come to my office at once ? '' he asked . `` I dare say Mrs. Johnson wo n't mind going to the Dane house alone . ''