midnight
`` You may open your eyes in thirty seconds . '' I was assisted from the step on to the pavement -- and I heard the car being driven back . Having slowly counted thirty I opened my eyes , and looked about me . This , and not the fevered moment when first I had looked upon the room with the golden door , seemed to be my true awakening , for about me was comprehensible world , the homely streets of London , with deserted Portland Place stretching away on the one hand and a glimpse of midnight Regent Street obtainable on the other ! The clock of the neighboring church struck one . My mind yet dull with wonder of it all , I walked on to Oxford Circus and there obtained a taxicab , in which I drove to Fleet Street . Discharging the man , I passed quickly under the time worn archway into the court and approached our stair .