one o'clock
It was not good shorthand practice , but his correspondence pleased Mr. John very much -- especially its more rotund phrases -- whilst for my part I keenly relished the fact that I , the most junior member of the staff , had really less of supervision in my work than any one else in the office . Upon the whole I was entitled , on that evening of my first day in the Sussex Street offices , to feel that I had made a tolerably creditable beginning , and that Sydney had treated the latest suppliant for her favour rather well . What I very well remember I did feel was that I should have an interesting story for Mr. William Smith that night when I reached ` my rooms ' at North Shore . My third day at J. Canning and Son 's offices was a Saturday , and the establishment closed at one o'clock . My room-mate , Mr. Smith , had invited me to spend the afternoon with him at Manly , the favourite sea-beach resort close to Sydney Heads . I had other plans in view , but did not like to refuse Mr. Smith , and so spent the time with him , not without enjoyment . Manly was not , of course , the thronged and crowded place it is to-day , but its Saturday afternoon visitors were fairly numerous , and most of them were people who showed in a variety of ways that they did not have to consider very closely the expenditure of a sovereign or so .