eight o’clock in the evening
The effect will be the most wonderful removal of all dirt , and a complete and brilliant metamorphosis of the present dingy surface of the picture . '' I left this note and the bottle myself at two o'clock that day ; then went home , and confidently awaited the result . The next morning our friend from the office called , announcing himself by a burst of laughter outside the door . Mr. Green had implicitly followed the directions in the letter the moment he received it -- had allowed the `` Amsterdam Cleansing Compound '' to remain on the Rembrandt until eight o'clock in the evening -- had called for the softest linen cloth in the whole house -- and had then , with his own venerable hands , carefully wiped off the compound , and with it the whole surface of the picture ! The brown , the black , the Burgomaster , the breakfast , and the ray of yellow light , all came clean off together in considerably less than a minute of time . If the picture , was brought into court now , the evidence it could give against us was limited to a bit of plain panel , and a mass of black pulp rolled up in a duster . Our line of defense was , of course , that the compound had been improperly used .