twenty minutes past nine
I returned to the preparation room , and Penny sighed , as much as to say : `` What a pity little boys are so petulant and quarrelsome . '' But the victory was his , as it always was , and he could think of other things . There was a clock on the wall behind him , but , too comfortable to turn his head , he asked me : `` What 's the beastly ? '' I glanced at the clock , and intimated , sulkily enough , that the beastly was twenty minutes past nine . He groaned . `` Oh ! Ah !