a quarter to nine
`` Never mind , '' I said encouragingly . `` You are still young . If you begin to break off this indecent habit -- '' `` It seems I have begun . It 's a quarter to nine . You know it is awful . If you had told me yesterday that to-night I should be sitting shut up in a horseless brougham at the back of an inn , alone with a strange man massaging my foot , I should have -- '' `` Of course you would . But there you are , lass , you never know your luck . ''