about nine o’clock
Why should she come boldly to my rooms to make her impossible demand ? I resolved that , even at the risk of my own comfort , I would stick to the truth . And to that resolve I would have clung had I not shortly received another visit -- this one far more inexplicable , far more surprising , than the first . It was about nine o'clock when Walters tapped at my door and told me two gentlemen wished to see me . A moment later into my study walked Lieutenant Norman Fraser-Freer and a fine old gentleman with a face that suggested some faded portrait hanging on an aristocrat 's wall . I had never seen him before . `` I hope it is quite convenient for you to see us , '' said young Fraser-Freer .