three o’clock in the afternoon
In a word , a moral plague ran through the city . The noise , and hurry , and excitement , had for hundreds and hundreds an attraction they had no firmness to resist . The contagion spread like a dread fever : an infectious madness , as yet not near its height , seized on new victims every hour , and society began to tremble at their ravings . It was between two and three o'clock in the afternoon when Gashford looked into the lair described in the last chapter , and seeing only Barnaby and Dennis there , inquired for Hugh . He was out , Barnaby told him ; had gone out more than an hour ago ; and had not yet returned . ` Dennis ! ' said the smiling secretary , in his smoothest voice , as he sat down cross-legged on a barrel , ` Dennis ! '