one o'clock
Sir Wilfrid had no reason to complain . Cabinet ministers and great ladies , members of Parliament and the permanent officials who govern but do not rule , soldiers , journalists , barristers -- were all glad , it seemed , to grasp him by the hand . He had returned with a record of difficult service brilliantly done , and the English world rewarded him in its accustomed ways . It was towards one o'clock that he found himself in a crowd pressing towards the staircase in the wake of some departing royalties . A tall man in front turned round to look for some ladies behind him from whom he had been separated in the crush . Sir Wilfrid recognized old Lord Lackington , the veteran of marvellous youth , painter , poet , and sailor , who as a gay naval lieutenant had entertained Byron in the Ægean ; whose fame as one of the raciest of naval reformers was in all the newspapers ; whose personality was still , at seventy-five , charming to most women and challenging to most men . As the old man turned , he was still smiling , as though in unison with something which had just been said to him ; and his black eyes under his singularly white hair searched the crowd with the animation of a lad of twenty .