one o'clock
`` You were only fifteen . '' `` Mathilde is immature for her age . '' It was agreed between them , however , that Mr. Lanley , without authority , should go and look the situation over . He had been trying to get the Waynes ' telephone since one o'clock . He had been told at intervals of fifteen minutes by a resolutely cheerful central that their number did not answer . Mr. Lanley hated people who did not answer their telephone . Nor was he agreeably impressed by the four flights of stairs , or by the appearance of the servant who answered his ring .