about eleven
o'clock
`` No , sir , not one , '' whispered the waiter , putting his mouth nearly close to the warden 's ear . Mr Harding was reassured . `` Waiter , '' said he again , and the waiter again creaked up . `` If anyone calls for me , I am going to dine out , and shall return about eleven o'clock . '' The waiter nodded , but did not this time vouchsafe any reply ; and Mr Harding , taking up his hat , proceeded out to pass a long day in the best way he could , somewhere out of sight of the archdeacon . Bradshaw had told him twenty times that Dr Grantly could not be at Paddington station till 2 P.M. , and our poor friend might therefore have trusted to the shelter of the hotel for some hours longer with perfect safety ; but he was nervous . There was no knowing what steps the archdeacon might take for his apprehension : a message by electric telegraph might desire the landlord of the hotel to set a watch upon him ; some letter might come which he might find himself unable to disobey ; at any rate , he could not feel himself secure in any place at which the archdeacon could expect to find him ; and at 10 A.M. he started forth to spend twelve hours in London .