about eleven o'clock
The Burton Room was closed to the public , whilst a glazier worked upon the broken east window and a new blind was fitted to the west . Behind the workmen , guarded by a watchful commissionaire , yawned the shattered case containing the slipper . I wondered if the visitors to the other rooms of the Museum realized , as I realized , that despite the blazing sunlight of tropical London , the shadow of Hassan of Aleppo lay starkly on that haunted building ? At about eleven o'clock , as I hurried along the Strand , I almost collided with the girl of the violet eyes ! She turned and ran like the wind down Arundel Street , whilst I stood at the corner staring after her in blank amazement , as did other passers-by ; for a man can not with dignity race headlong after a pretty woman down a public thoroughfare ! My mystification grew hourly deeper ; and Bristol wallowed in perplexities . `` It 's the most horrible and confusing case , '' he said to me when I joined him at the Museum , `` that the Yard has ever had to handle .