a quarter before two
Robert Audley had requested Clara Talboys to telegraph an answer to his question , in order to avoid the loss of a day in the accomplishment of the investigation he had promised to perform . The telegraphic answer reached Figtree Court before twelve o'clock the next day . The name of the seaport town was Wildernsea , Yorkshire . Within an hour of the receipt of this message , Mr. Audley arrived at the King 's - cross station , and took his ticket for Wildernsea by an express train that started at a quarter before two . The shrieking engine bore him on the dreary northward journey , whirling him over desert wastes of flat meadow-land and bare cornfields , faintly tinted with fresh sprouting green . This northern road was strange and unfamiliar to the young barrister , and the wide expanse of the wintry landscape chilled him by its aspect of bare loneliness . The knowledge of the purpose of his journey blighted every object upon which his absent glances fixed themselves for a moment , only to wander wearily away ; only to turn inward upon that far darker picture always presenting itself to his anxious mind .