five minutes before ten
There is always an inertia to be overcome in striking out a new line of conduct -- not more in ourselves , it seems , than in circumscribing events , which appear as if leagued together to allow no novelties in the way of amelioration . Twenty pounds having been secured from Bathsheba , he had managed to add to the sum every farthing he could muster on his own account , which had been seven pounds ten . With this money , twenty-seven pounds ten in all , he had hastily driven from the gate that morning to keep his appointment with Fanny Robin . On reaching Casterbridge he left the horse and trap at an inn , and at five minutes before ten came back to the bridge at the lower end of the town , and sat himself upon the parapet . The clocks struck the hour , and no Fanny appeared . In fact , at that moment she was being robed in her grave-clothes by two attendants at the Union poorhouse -- the first and last tiring-women the gentle creature had ever been honoured with . The quarter went , the half hour .