twelve o'clock
The snowdrops must be making a peep at Glenfaba by this time , and Aunt Rachel will be cutting slips of the rose trees and putting them in pots . Yandher place must he _ urromassy _ -LSB- * Out of mercy . -RSB- nice though , with snow on the roof and the sloping lawn , and the windows glistening with frost -- just like a girl in her confirmation veil as she stands hack to look at herself in the glass . I intend to see the New Year in this time on the outside of St. Paul 's Cathedral , where people congregate in thousands as twelve o'clock approaches to carry on the beautiful fiction that there is still only one clock in London , and they have to hold their noses in the air to watch for the moment when it is going to strike . But in the midst of the light and life of this splendid city I know my heart will go back with a tender twinge to the little dark streets on the edge of the sea , where the Methodist choirs will be singing , ` Hail , smiling morn , ' preparatory to coffee and currant cake . `` Who will be your ` first foot ' this year , I wonder ? It was John Storm last year , you remember , and being as dark as a gipsy , he made a perfect _ qualtagh _ .