quarter after midnight
`` I can quite understand how this ghastly affair has shaken you up . '' `` It was so sudden , '' said the other , plaintively . `` It is incredible that so much emotion can be crowded into so short a period of a man 's life . '' ... Big Ben chimed the quarter after midnight . Leroux , eyes averted , walked to the writing-table , and took up the telephone . Detective-Inspector Dunbar was admitted by Dr. Cumberly . He was a man of notable height , large-boned , and built gauntly and squarely .