ten minutes to one
` Oo cares for ` im ? ' ` Well , we never know ; and for that matter Rushton or Sweater might come at any minit . ' With this , Crass went muttering back to the scullery , and the men relapsed into their usual silence . At ten minutes to one they all ceased work , put away their colours and locked up the house . There were a number of 'em pties ' to be taken away and left at the yard on their way to the office ; these Crass divided amongst the others -- carrying nothing himself -- and then they all set out for the office to get their money , cracking jokes as they went along . Harlow and Easton enlivened the journey by coughing significantly whenever they met a young woman , and audibly making some complimentary remark about her personal appearance . If the girl smiled , each of them eagerly claimed to have ` seen her first ' , but if she appeared offended or ` stuck up ' , they suggested that she was cross-cut or that she had been eating vinegar with a fork .