eight o'clock
The former was one of those conventional mottoes seen on every laundry , club , and temple which would have translated `` Health , long life , and happiness '' ; the other Wing Sam had copied from a lithograph he much admired . It read `` Use Rising Sun Stove Polish . '' Glowering with resentment , Wing Sam scraped the frosting from the cake . At eight o'clock a small boy delivered a note at the door and scuttled back to the centre of excitement . It was a scrawl from Keith , saying that he was detained , would not be home to dinner , might not be in at all . Nan sat down to a cold , belated meal served by a loftily disapproving Chinaman . She tried to think of her pride in Keith , and the work he , in company with his fellows , was doing for the city ; to recall some of her exaltation of the afternoon ; but it was very difficult .