a quarter to eleven o’clock
He believed afterwards that he had slept an hour ; but even if he had he felt it to be still too early to return to the theatre . He sat down by his lamp and tried to read -- to read a little compendious life of a great English statesman , out of a `` series . '' It struck him as brilliantly clever , and he asked himself whether that perhaps were not rather the sort of thing he ought to have taken up : not the statesmanship , but the art of brief biography . Suddenly he became aware that he must hurry if he was to reach the theatre at all -- it was a quarter to eleven o'clock . He scrambled out and , this time , found a hansom -- he had lately spent enough money in cabs to add to his hope that the profits of his new profession would be great . His anxiety , his suspense flamed up again , and as he rattled eastward -- he went fast now -- he was almost sick with alternations . As he passed into the theatre the first man -- some underling -- who met him , cried to him , breathlessly : `` You 're wanted , sir -- you 're wanted ! ''