twenty-five minutes
past twelve
`` Saturday night arrived in due course . I shut up the shop at nine , put on evening clothes , took the newly-purchased Gladstone and hailed a hansom . I drove , in the first place , to the Criterion Restaurant and dined delicately but substantially , carefully avoiding indigestible dishes . From the restaurant I drove to the museum , where I loitered , making a final inspection of my arrangements , until twenty-five minutes past twelve . Then I came forth and walked quietly to Upper Bedford Place . `` As I turned the corner and looked down the wide thoroughfare the long stretch of pavement contained but a single figure ; a dim , dark blot on the gray of the summer night . It moved towards me , and , resolving itself into a definite shape , showed me Piragoff in evening dress , enveloped in a voluminous overcoat and carrying a small hand-bag . ''