about
seven o'clock
He spoke to no one in the gallery , and he avoided his club . Early in the afternoon he went to Lincoln 's Inn Fields -- only to hear from the lawyers that they had done all they could with the new scent , and it was no use pursuing it further . He heard what they had to say in silence , and after leaving their office he visited a shop in the Strand . Just as the light was waning , about seven o'clock on a May evening , he found himself again in his studio . It was now absolutely bare , save for a few empty easels , a chair or two , and some tattered portfolios . The two men representing the execution were in the dining-room . He could hear the voices of a charwoman and of the lad who had helped him to arrange the gallery , talking in the kitchen .