seven in the evening
Beyond shadow of fair doubt Dupont was up to some new devilment , but Lanyard would be surprised if its nature failed to develop on the train or at latest upon its arrival in Paris the next morning . For the present he was weary of the sight of the fat Apache , glad to believe he had seen the last of him for some hours ; he had much to do on his own part , nothing less in fact than utterly to obliterate from human ken the personality of André Duchemin . This affair involved several purchases ; for he was travelling light indeed , having left even his rucksack at the Château de Montalais . Nevertheless it was no later than seven in the evening when he left a room which he had engaged in a hotel so pretentious and heavily patronised that he was lost in its ebb and flow of life , an inconsiderable and unconsidered bit of flotsam -- and left it a changed man . The pointed beard of Monsieur Duchemin was no more ; and a little stain , artfully applied , had toned the newly exposed flesh to match the tan of the rest . The rough tweed walking-suit had been replaced by a modest and commonplace blue serge , the cap and heavy brown boots by a straw boater and plain black shoes , the loose-throated flannel shirt by one of plain linen with stiff cuffs and a fold collar and neat foulard tie . So easily was Madame de Sévénié 's buccaneer metamorphosed into the semblance of a Government clerk !