about eleven o'clock
`` Not for a moment take the scorner 's chair ; While seated there , thou know ` st not how a word , A tone , a look , may gall thy brother 's heart , And make him turn in bitterness against thee . '' `` LOVE-TRUTHS . '' The day arrived on which the masters were to have an interview with a deputation of the work-people . The meeting was to take place in a public room , at an hotel ; and there , about eleven o'clock , the mill-owners , who had received the foreign orders , began to collect . Of course , the first subject , however full their minds might be of another , was the weather . Having done their duty by all the showers and sunshine which had occurred during the past week , they fell to talking about the business which brought them together . There might be about twenty gentlemen in the room , including some by courtesy , who were not immediately concerned in the settlement of the present question ; but who , nevertheless , were sufficiently interested to attend .