about midnight
The Assistant Commissioner , driven rapidly in a hansom from the neighbourhood of Soho in the direction of Westminster , got out at the very centre of the Empire on which the sun never sets . Some stalwart constables , who did not seem particularly impressed by the duty of watching the august spot , saluted him . Penetrating through a portal by no means lofty into the precincts of the House which is _ the _ House , _ par excellence _ in the minds of many millions of men , he was met at last by the volatile and revolutionary Toodles . That neat and nice young man concealed his astonishment at the early appearance of the Assistant Commissioner , whom he had been told to look out for some time about midnight . His turning up so early he concluded to be the sign that things , whatever they were , had gone wrong . With an extremely ready sympathy , which in nice youngsters goes often with a joyous temperament , he felt sorry for the great Presence he called `` The Chief , '' and also for the Assistant Commissioner , whose face appeared to him more ominously wooden than ever before , and quite wonderfully long . `` What a queer , foreign-looking chap he is , '' he thought to himself , smiling from a distance with friendly buoyancy .