a quarter past twelve
`` That does not concern me . Arrange that as you can . '' It was the most curious invitation to a Christmas dinner imaginable . At a quarter past twelve they issued forth side by side , heavily clad , into the mournful streets . The sky , slate-coloured , presaged snow . The air was bitterly cold , and yet damp . There were no fiacres in the little three-cornered place which forms the mouth of the Rue Clausel .