quarter after four
She shrank from him with a quick breath . `` Oh , Jack , I beg of you , do n't tease me these days . '' He straightened up and laughed , taking out his watch . `` It 's quarter after four , '' he said , reflecting . `` The mail must be in ; I 'll see if there are any letters , '' and he went out . She remained by the window , twirling the shade-tassel with her idle fingers , and seeing , not the rattle and clatter of Italian street-life , but the great space of the Maximilian-Joseph Platz , with the doves pattering placidly over the white and black pattern of its pavement , and the Maximiliansstrasse stretching before her with the open arches of the Maximilianeum closing its long vista at the further end ... . Quick steps in the hall broke in upon her day dream , and her cousin re-entered , an open letter in his hand and his face curiously drawn .