about five o'clock
He drove quickly back to his office , and Aileen returned to her home determined to put her plan into action . Her father had given her some little time in which to decide -- possibly he would give her longer -- but she would not wait . Having always had her wish granted in everything , she could not understand why she was not to have her way this time . It was about five o'clock now . She would wait until all the members of the family were comfortably seated at the dinner-table , which would be about seven o'clock , and then slip out . On arriving home , however , she was greeted by an unexpected reason for suspending action . This was the presence of a certain Mr. and Mrs. Steinmetz -- the former a well-known engineer who drew the plans for many of the works which Butler undertook .