a quarter to four
`` You 're as inhuman as a French functionary . Do you call yourself a sympathetic comrade for an impatient man ? '' He laid it open on his rustic table , and waited through a last eternity . At a quarter to four he crossed the river . `` If I am early -- tant pis ! '' he decided , choosing the lesser of two evils , and challenging Fate . He crossed the river , and stood for the first time in the grounds of Ventirose -- stood where she had been in the habit of standing , during their water-side colloquies .