one o’clock
They seem superior to the little prevailing conventions ; they excite an unlawful interest ; though nobody knows them black nobody imagines them white ; and when they appear upon Main Street in search of shoelaces or elastic heads are turned and nods , possibly nudges , exchanged . Miss Belton had come from New York to the Barker House , Elgin , and young Ormiston 's intimacy with her was one of the things that counted against him in the general view . It was to so count more seriously in the particular instance . Witnesses were called to prove that he had spent the evening of the burglary with Miss Belton at her hotel , that he had remained with her until one o'clock , that he was in the habit of spending his evenings with Miss Belton . Rawlins of the Express did not overdo the sensation which was caused in the courtroom when the name of this lady herself was called to summon her to the witness box . It was indeed the despair of his whole career . He thought despondingly ever after of the thrill , to which he himself was not superior and which , if he had only been able to handle it adequately , might have led him straight up the ladder to a night editorship .