four o'clock
The Gordon-and-Gordon manager was absently jabbing holes in the desk blotter with the paper-knife . `` Well , we can do what we have to , I suppose , '' he said , after a hesitant pause . `` Say nothing to my father , but make your arrangements to take the train for the North again to-night . I 'll meet you in town at the Marlboro at four o'clock . '' To prepare for the new exigency , Tom took the afternoon local for South Tredegar . The lump sum required for the bribery was considerably in excess of his balance in bank . Notwithstanding the stringency of the times , he made sure he could borrow ; but it was in some vague hope that the moral chasm might be widened to impassibility , or decently bridged for him , that he was moved to state the case in detail to President Henniker of the Iron City National .