a quarter to ten
`` The man omitted to come from Rendon to set it last week , Horace . He will find the hour too late here for him when he does come . '' One of the ladies compared the time of her watch with De Craye 's , and Clara looked at hers and gratefully noted that she was four minutes in arrear . She left the breakfast-room at a quarter to ten , after kissing her father . Willoughby was behind her . He had been soothed by thinking of his personal advantages over De Craye , and he felt assured that if he could be solitary with his eccentric bride and fold her in himself , he would , cutting temper adrift , be the man he had been to her not so many days back . Considering how few days back , his temper was roused , but he controlled it .