six o'clock
`` The weather was bleak and windy , and there were very few wanderers in the hilly High Street of Winchester . We were received with very courteous welcome at the George , and were conducted to a comfortable sitting-room upon the first-floor , with windows looking out upon the street . Two bedrooms in the vicinity of the sitting-room were assigned to us . I ordered dinner for six o'clock , having ascertained that hour to be agreeable to Mr. Carter , who was slowly removing his wrappings , and looking deliberately at every separate article in the room ; as if he fancied there might be some scrap of information to be picked up from a window-blind , or a coal-scuttle , or lurking mysteries hidden in a sideboard-drawer . I have no doubt the habit of observation was so strong upon this man that he observed the most insignificant things involuntarily . `` It was a very dull unpleasant day , and I was glad to draw my chair to the fire and make myself comfortable , while the waiter went to fetch a bottle of soda-water and sixpenn ` orth of ` best French ' for my companion , who was walking about the room with his hands in his pockets , and his grizzled eyebrows knotted together . `` The reward which Government had offered for the arrest of Joseph Wilmot 's murderer was the legitimate price usually bidden for the head of an assassin .