a few
minutes after eight o'clock
`` Cicely will explain him too , '' he said . `` By Gad , I wonder if this is going to be the finishing bit of luck ! '' In another twenty minutes the lights of his gig lamps were raking the night . Cromarty and Carrington slipped unostentatiously out of the hotel a few minutes after eight o'clock . `` Take any line you like , '' said Carrington , `` but as he knows now that you brought Miss Farmond back and have heard her version , he 'll naturally be feeling a little uncomfortable about the place where one generally gets kicked , when he sees you march in . He will expect you to open out on that subject , so if I were you I 'd take the natural line of country and do what he expects . '' `` Including the kicking ? ''