six o'clock
If need be he would open it , and would say of art and of its relations to the national life anything that the commissioners required of him . He would also lend any pictures from the royal collection which did not leave too obvious a gap upon the walls . All this was a mere matter of course ; but the occasion being important -- one of the great events indeed of the Jubilee festivities -- it was expected of him that he should give a rather special consideration to the final plans . Though wearied by the circumlocutions of his Council which had lasted throughout the morning , he named an hour , and at six o'clock received his minister in private audience . The Professor began to explain matters in the usual official tone , but before long perceived that the attention paid to him was merely formal . The King sat depressed , listless , and cold . This renewal of the official routine found him mentally fagged out ; it was evident that his thoughts were elsewhere .