a quarter to eight
That it took him seven miles to work out this simple problem may seem ridiculous . Possibly it is . In any case it is highly illuminating , for it shows that the love which he bore Miss Valerie French was worth having . When he posted his letter at a quarter to eight , the cock-robin , who had been brooding over his late transilience , was greatly relieved . * * * * * Upon the second day of August the one-fifteen from Waterloo , or what was left of it , rumbled in the wake of three other coaches -- country cousins , these , that had never seen London -- up the long blue-brown valley at the end of which lay the station of Mockery Dale . It was tremendously hot , for the afternoon sun was raking the valley from stem to stern , and since what little breeze there was blew from the south-east , the fitful puffs passed over the dip in the moorland and left it windless . This suited the butterflies admirably .