four o'clock
In another country , perhaps , in another day , another age , such a situation would have been capable of a solution , one not utterly destructive to Mr. Sluss , and not entirely favorable to a man like Cowperwood . But here in the United States , here in Chicago , the ethical verities would all , as he knew , be lined up against him . What Lake View would think , what his pastor would think , what Hand and all his moral associates would think -- ah , these were the terrible , the incontrovertible consequences of his lapse from virtue . At four o'clock , after Mr. Sluss had wandered for hours in the snow and cold , belaboring himself for a fool and a knave , and while Cowperwood was sitting at his desk signing papers , contemplating a glowing fire , and wondering whether the mayor would deem it advisable to put in an appearance , his office door opened and one of his trim stenographers entered announcing Mr. Chaffee Thayer Sluss . Enter Mayor Sluss , sad , heavy , subdued , shrunken , a very different gentleman from the one who had talked so cavalierly over the wires some five and a half hours before . Gray weather , severe cold , and much contemplation of seemingly irreconcilable facts had reduced his spirits greatly . He was a little pale and a little restless .