twelve minutes past ten
It affected him with a sense of desertion and oblivion . In that city of four million inhabitants , each man was strenuously pursuing his own affairs , or was harnessed into an iron yoke of duties , which deafened and blinded him to everything beside the path he had to tread . Frederick looked at his watch . It was twelve minutes past ten . His uneasiness increased . He was unable to sit still . Each nerve , each cell of his body was touched and excited by invisible forces storming upon him from all sides .