twenty-three minutes to
twelve
I saw it , this edifice , myself , only twelve hours ago . And yet here was everything as it had been when I was a child ; and all through the agency of this solid phantom of a lovely young English duchess , whose warm gloved hands I had only this minute been holding in mine ! The scent of her gloves was still in my palm . I looked at my watch ; it marked twenty-three minutes to twelve . All this had happened in less than three-quarters of an hour ! Pondering over all this in hopeless bewilderment , I turned my steps towards my old home , and , to my surprise , was just able to look over the garden wall , which I had once thought about ten feet high . Under the old apple-tree in full bloom sat my mother , darning small socks ; with her flaxen side-curls -LRB- as it was her fashion to wear them -RRB- half-concealing her face .