seventeen minutes past twelve
She was of a superior sort to the down-stairs woman , and she often told her brother she could not get used to folks using such language . Poor Carroll was looking dimly at his watch , and Allbright at once divined that he could not distinguish the time without his eye-glasses . He therefore leaned over him -- his own spectacles were on his nose -- and told him the time . `` It 's almost seventeen minutes past twelve , Mr. Carroll , '' he said . Carroll made a movement to rise , then subsided with a groan . `` Where am I ? '' he inquired , feebly , with a bewildered stare around the strange room .