a quarter to
one
` O -- I am of no party , though my relations are . There can be only one best course at all times , and the wisdom of the nation should be directed to finding it , instead of zigzagging in two courses , according to the will of the party which happens to have the upper hand . ' Having started thus , they found no difficulty in agreeing on many points . When Pierston went downstairs from that assembly at a quarter to one , and passed under the steaming nostrils of an ambassador 's horses to a hansom which waited for him against the railing of the square , he had an impression that the Beloved had re-emerged from the shadows , without any hint or initiative from him -- to whom , indeed , such re-emergence was an unquestionably awkward thing . In this he was aware , however , that though it might be now , as heretofore , the Loved who danced before him , it was the Goddess behind her who pulled the string of that Jumping Jill . He had lately been trying his artist hand again on the Dea 's form in every conceivable phase and mood . He had become a one-part man -- a presenter of her only .