twenty minutes past ten
But to me it just seems the most natural thing in all the world . I love Peter , and he loves me , and the earth is big enough to hide us , and that 's all there is to it . Anyway , right or wrong , I ca n't help it , '' she finished , rejoicing to find herself suddenly serene and confident , as the boat made the slip , and the passengers streamed downstairs and so across the ferry place and into the city . It was twenty minutes past ten , a warm , sweet morning , with great hurrying back and forth at the ferry , women climbing to the open seats of the cable-cars , pinning on their violets or roses as they climbed . In the air was the pleasant mingling of the scents of roasting coffee , salt bay-water , and softening tar in the paving , that is native only to San Francisco . Cars clanged about the circle , hummed their way up into the long vista of Market Street , disturbing great flights of gulls that were picking dropped oats from the very feet of feeding horses . Cherry sped through it all , beside herself now with excitement and strain , only anxious to have the great hands of the clock drop more speedily from minute to minute , and so round out the terrible hour that joined the old life to the new .