about twenty minutes to twelve
Fortunately for Philip , there was an engagement of long standing for this day , the thirtieth of April , to go , in conjunction with other persons , to effect a valuation of the fallows , & c. , of a large tenant who was going out at Michaelmas . This prevented any call being made upon him to go and see Maria Lee , as , after the events of the previous evening , it might have been expected he would . He started early on this business , and did not return till late , so he saw nothing of his father that day . On the morning of the first of May he breakfasted about half-past eight , and then , without seeing his father , drove to Roxham to catch a train that got him up to London about twenty minutes to twelve . As he steamed slowly into Paddington Station , another train steamed out , and had he been careful to examine the occupants of the first-class carriages as they passed him in a slow procession , he might have seen something that would have interested him ; but he was , not unnaturally , too much occupied with his own thoughts to allow of the indulgence of an idle curiosity . On the arrival of his train , he took a cab and drove without delay to the house in Lincoln 's Inn Fields , and asked for Mrs. Roberts . `` She is n't back yet , sir , '' was Mrs. Jacobs ' reply .