About eight o’clock
Not that he could tell they were silent except by their set lips , for the noise of wheels and horses on so many hundreds of miles of streets , and the cries of busmen and vendors of evening papers , made such a hubbub that he felt before long in a maze . He lost his way four times , and was patronisingly set right by beneficent policemen ; and at last , feeling like a man who has fallen off a precipice on to a soft place -- none the worse but quite bewildered -- he struggled back to his hotel . There he spun out his time by watching the people come and go , and at last dressed with extra deliberation . About eight o'clock he sat down to his solitary dinner . The great gilt and panelled room was full of diners and bustling waiters , but there was not a face the Baron had ever seen before . He was just finishing a plate of whitebait when he observed a stranger enter the room and stroll in a very self-possessed manner down the middle , glancing at the tables round him as though he was looking either for a friend or a desirable seat . This gentleman was tall , fair , and clean-shaved ; he was dressed in a suit of well-fitting tweeds , and his air impressed the Baron as being natural and yet distinguished .