a minute after 7:30
`` Well , sir , '' said the valet smoothly , `` the gentleman seemed such an old friend of yours , I thought perhaps you would n't like to miss him . '' `` One 's oldest friends are sometimes d -- d nuisances , Forman . '' The Colonel saw the pleasant evening he had contemplated spending in the society of two or three of the gayest old bloods in London darkening into a _ tête-à-tête _ with Mr. Walkingshaw at his portentously respectable club , and regretted he had allowed Forman to lay out a clean white waistcoat ; for he was , by force of circumstances , economical as well as gallant . `` I tell you what , '' said he , `` I do n't mean to wait a minute after 7:30 . If he turns up late , you can make my apologies , and say I 'll be happy to lunch with him to-morrow . '' He put on his coat , added an overcoat and white scarf , cocked his opera hat on his shapely old head , and sat confronting his sitting-room clock . At 7:29 he rose briskly , and then with a sigh sank back into his chair .