four o'clock
`` With a pardon it is that I think that Miss Adair is a very fine lady , and so also ` The Purple Slipper . ' '' With this incoherent pronouncement of sympathy and encouragement , though devastated at the loss of `` The Rosie Posie Girl , '' upon which he had already spent many creative days , Mr. Meyers departed into the outer office . For a long minute Mr. Vandeford glared at the unoffending rose in his buttonhole , then smiled , ran his hands through his hair , turned to the telephone , and plunged into the last lap of the race of `` The Purple Slipper . '' Until four o'clock he was closeted with the most brilliant theatrical publicity man in New York City ; then he took his contracts and went over to Weiner 's office and sacrificed `` The Rosie Posie Girl '' to -- An hour later he had told his partner , Mr. Dennis Farraday , all about it , and showed him the deeds of execution . `` You ought not to have done it , Van . It was too big a price to pay , '' Mr. Farraday declared , with his mane rumpled on high . `` No , '' answered Mr. Vandeford , in happy calmness . ''