a quarter to twelve
Abe waggled his head solemnly . `` You should n't ask me , Mawruss , '' he said . `` I got an idee . '' It was a quarter to twelve when Abe left the loft building on Nineteenth Street , and he repaired immediately to the real-estate salesroom on Vesey Street , where auction sales of real estate are held at noon daily . To this center of real-estate activity comes every real-estate broker of the East Side , together with his brothers from Harlem and the Bronx , and Abe felt reasonably sure that B. Rashkin would be on hand . Indeed , he had hardly entered the salesroom when he descried B. Rashkin standing on the outskirts of a little throng that surrounded the rostrum of a popular auctioneer . `` Now , gentlemen , '' said the auctioneer , `` what am I offered for this six-story , four-family house .