six minutes to six
PART I `` And yet , '' Edward Henry Machin reflected as at six minutes to six he approached his own dwelling at the top of Bleakridge , `` and yet -- I do n't feel so jolly after all ! '' The first two words of this disturbing meditation had reference to the fact that , by telephoning twice to his stockbrokers at Manchester , he had just made the sum of three hundred and forty-one pounds in a purely speculative transaction concerning Rubber Shares . -LRB- It was in the autumn of the great gambling year , 1910 . -RRB- He had simply opened his lucky and wise mouth at the proper moment , and the money , like ripe , golden fruit , had fallen into it , a gift from benign heaven , surely a cause for happiness !