one o'clock
The place stifled and depressed me . I longed for red blood and real life . There I was , acting as a clerk on nothing a year , when uptown I was in the centre of the whirlpool of existence . It was with ill-concealed gratification that I used daily at one o'clock to enter the library , bow to whatever member of the firm happened to be there , remove a book from the shelves and slip out of the door . A horse-car dropped me in half an hour at a hotel near my office . After I had snatched a sandwich and a cup of coffee in the café I would dash up to my office -- the door of which now bore the lettering : ABRAHAM GOTTLIEB ATTORNEY & COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW BRANCH OFFICE SIDDONS KELLY , MANAGER Siddons Kelly was the superannuated actor of whom I have already spoken , and when he was not , so to speak , in drink he was an invaluable person . He had followed the stage all his life , but he was of the sort that tear passion to tatters and he had never risen above third-rate parts .