quarter to four
As he sat there listening there seemed to come up to him , straight out of the river , strange impersonal noises that had to do with no definite sounds . He was reminded of a story that he had once read , a story concerning a nice young man who caught the disease known as the Horror of London . Peter thought that in the air , coming from nowhere , intangible , floating between the river and the sky something stirred ... . Big Ben struck quarter to four and he turned once more into the Strand . The editor of _ The Saturday Illustrated _ was a very different person from Mr. Boset . At a desk piled with papers , stern , gaunt and sharp-chinned , his words rattled out of his mouth like peas onto a plate . But Peter saw that he had humorous twinkling eyes .