twenty-one o'clock
`` I must not stay , sir , '' said Oliver , shaking his head . `` One instant -- is it true that this worship will be compulsory ? '' Oliver bowed as he gathered up his papers . Mabel , seated in the gallery that evening behind the President 's chair , had already glanced at her watch half-a-dozen times in the last hour , hoping each time that twenty-one o'clock was nearer than she feared . She knew well enough by now that the President of Europe would not be half-a-minute either before or after his time . His supreme punctuality was famous all over the continent . He had said Twenty-One , so it was to be twenty-one .