a quarter past five
You look down the long perspective of Oxford-street , the gas-lights mournfully reflected on the wet pavement , and can discern no speck in the road to encourage the belief that there is a cab or a coach to be had -- the very coachmen have gone home in despair . The cold sleet is drizzling down with that gentle regularity , which betokens a duration of four-and-twenty hours at least ; the damp hangs upon the house-tops and lamp-posts , and clings to you like an invisible cloak . The water is ` coming in ' in every area , the pipes have burst , the water-butts are running over ; the kennels seem to be doing matches against time , pump-handles descend of their own accord , horses in market-carts fall down , and there 's no one to help them up again , policemen look as if they had been carefully sprinkled with powdered glass ; here and there a milk-woman trudges slowly along , with a bit of list round each foot to keep her from slipping ; boys who ` do n't sleep in the house , ' and are not allowed much sleep out of it , ca n't wake their masters by thundering at the shop-door , and cry with the cold -- the compound of ice , snow , and water on the pavement , is a couple of inches thick -- nobody ventures to walk fast to keep himself warm , and nobody could succeed in keeping himself warm if he did . It strikes a quarter past five as you trudge down Waterloo-place on your way to the Golden Cross , and you discover , for the first time , that you were called about an hour too early . You have not time to go back ; there is no place open to go into , and you have , therefore , no resource but to go forward , which you do , feeling remarkably satisfied with yourself , and everything about you . You arrive at the office , and look wistfully up the yard for the Birmingham High-flier , which , for aught you can see , may have flown away altogether , for preparations appear to be on foot for the departure of any vehicle in the shape of a coach . You wander into the booking-office , which with the gas-lights and blazing fire , looks quite comfortable by contrast -- that is to say , if any place _ can _ look comfortable at half-past five on a winter 's morning .