about half past four in the afternoon
He always argued that it kept him in London ; but he would undoubtedly have lived in London with or without his official occupation . He had become so habituated to London life in a small way , before the choice of leaving London was open to him , that nothing would have kept him long away from it . After his wife 's death he dined at his club every day on which a dinner was not given to him by some friend elsewhere , and was rarely happy except when so dining . They who have seen him scanning the steward 's list of dishes , and giving the necessary orders for his own and his friend 's dinner , at about half past four in the afternoon , have seen John Vavasor at the only moment of the day at which he is ever much in earnest . All other things are light and easy to him , -- to be taken easily and to be dismissed easily . Even the eating of the dinner calls forth from him no special sign of energy . Sometimes a frown will gather on his brow as he tastes the first half glass from his bottle of claret ; but as a rule that which he has prepared for himself with so much elaborate care , is consumed with only pleasant enjoyment .