nine o'clock
It has struck nine , and to Olva and Lawrence , walking solemnly through the market-place , it all seems quiet enough . But behold how the gods work their will ! It so happens that Giles of St Martin 's has occasion , on this very day , to celebrate his twenty-first birthday . It has been done as a twenty-first birthday should be done , and by nine o'clock the company , twenty in number , have decided that `` it was the ruddiest of ruddy old worlds '' -- that -- `` let 's have some moretodrink ol' man -- it was Fifth o ' November -- and that a ruddyoldbonfire would be -- a -- ruddyol ' - joke -- '' Now , at half-past nine , the company of twenty march singing down the K.P. and gather unto themselves others -- a murmur is spreading through the byways . `` Bonfire on the Common . '' `` Bonfire on the Common . '' The streets begin to be black with undergraduates .