midnight
He glanced at his wrist-watch . `` Only four minutes , however . I just could n't get away sooner . '' From nine till ten Forrest gave himself up to his secretary , achieving a correspondence that included learned societies and every sort of breeding and agricultural organization and that would have compelled the average petty business man , unaided , to sit up till midnight to accomplish . For Dick Forrest was the center of a system which he himself had built and of which he was secretly very proud . Important letters and documents he signed with his ragged fist . All other letters were rubber-stamped by Mr. Blake , who , also , in shorthand , in the course of the hour , put down the indicated answers to many letters and received the formula designations of reply to many other letters .