six o'clock
Ten minutes later , her passage secured , Claire was walking to the local theatre to inform those in charge of the destinies of The Girl and the Artist number one company that they must look elsewhere for a substitute for Miss Claudia Winslow . Then she went back to her hotel to write a letter home , notifying her mother of her plans . She looked at her watch . It was six o'clock . Back in West Kensington a rich smell of dinner would be floating through the flat ; the cook , watching the boiling cabbage , would be singing `` A Few More Years Shall Roll '' ; her mother would be sighing ; and her little brother Percy would be employed upon some juvenile deviltry , the exact nature of which it was not possible to conjecture , though one could be certain that it would be something involving a deafening noise . Claire smiled a happy smile . The offices of Messrs Nichols , Nichols , Nichols , and Nichols were in Lincoln 's Inn Fields .