nine A.M.
The conversation always terminated at this point , by Philomela declaring that coarse personality was the refuge of weak-minded people when they could not answer arguments , and that , for her part , she would never take the trouble to say another plain , straightforward word for his good ; whereupon there would be a truce , lasting sometimes a whole day . Fayette Overtop , the second of the three young men -- the one looking out of the window , drumming idly on the glass , and continually tossing back his head to clear the long black hair from his brow , over which it hung in an incurable cowlick -- was a short , compact , nervous person , twenty-five years old . Mr. Overtop had been educated for the law , but , finding the profession uncomfortably crowded when he came into it , had not yet achieved those brilliant triumphs which he once fondly imagined within his reach . For three years he had been in regular attendance at his office from nine A.M. to three P.M. -LRB- as per written card on the door -RRB- , except in term time , when he was a patient frequenter of the courts . During these three years he had picked up something less than enough to pay his half of the rent of two small , dimly lighted , but expensive rooms on the fourth floor of a labyrinth in the lower part of the city . Mr. Overtop , when asked to explain this state of things , about which he made no concealment , always attributed it to a `` lack of clients . '' If he had clients enough , and of the right kind , he felt confident that he could make a figure in the profession .