a quarter past eight
` But I 've always wanted to be the only exception . I say , does half-past eight mean a quarter past nine ? ' ` No . It means a quarter past eight , if you like . Good-bye ! ' She cut off the communication abruptly , being a little afraid that if she let him go on chattering any longer she might yield and allow him to come at once . In her solitude she was intensely bored by her own bad temper , and was nearer to making him the ` only exception ' than she had often been of late .