ten
o'clock
Meanwhile the Hon. Sidney Bertram Goldsborough , so called and so registered at the Hotel Atminster , grew decidedly peevish over the unaccountable failure of his order to arrive from a theatrical costumer 's , where he had selected it some three days earlier . He was morally sure it had been sent hours earlier by special messenger from the costume shop . In answer to his vexed inquiries the parcels department of the hotel was equally sure that no box or package consigned to Mr. Goldsborough had been received . Finally , after ten o'clock , the missing costume was brought to the gentleman 's door with a message of profound regret from the assistant manager , who expressed sorrow that through the stupidity of some member or members of his force a valued guest had been inconvenienced . Hastily slipping into the costume and putting a light overcoat on over it Mr. Goldsborough started in a taxicab up Fifth Avenue . But at Forty-eighth Street a government mail van , issuing suddenly out of the sideway , smashed squarely into the side of the taxicab bearing him , with the result that the taxi lost a wheel and Mr. Goldsborough lost another half hour . This second delay was due to the fact that his presence upon the spot was required by a plain-clothes man who took over the investigation of the collision from the patrolman on the post .