the hour of one in the morning in the twentieth century
` Then put them into words ; yes , and afterwards into metal . Strong thought is bound to realise itself sooner or later , eh ? Is n't it all grand and splendid ? ' They stared at one another across the smoky atmosphere of the London flat at the hour of one in the morning in the twentieth century . ` And when I think of a Scaffolding of Dusk that builds the Night , ' Rogers went on in a lower tone to himself , yet not so low that Minks , listening in amazement , did not catch every syllable , ` or of a Dustman , Sweep , and Lamplighter , of a Starlight Express , or a vast Star Net that binds the world in sympathy together , and when I weave all these into a story , whose centre somehow is the Pleiades -- all this is real and actual , and -- and -- ' ` May have been projected by another mind before it floated into your own , ' Minks suddenly interposed almost in a whisper , charmed wholly into the poet 's region by these suggestive phrases , yet wondering a little why he said it , and particularly how he dared to say it . His chief turned sharply upon him . ` My own thought exactly ! '