a quarter
past one
She was telling me she once killed a panther with a hat-pin . '' Sam groaned and tossed on his mattress . Silence fell again . `` At least I think it was a panther , '' said Eustace Hignett at a quarter past one . `` Either a panther or a puma . '' A week after the liner `` Atlantic '' had docked at Southampton Sam Marlowe might have been observed -- and was observed by various of the residents -- sitting on a bench on the esplanade of that rising watering-place , Bingley-on-the-Sea , in Sussex . All watering-places on the south coast of England are blots on the landscape , but though I am aware that by saying it I shall offend the civic pride of some of the others -- none are so peculiarly foul as Bingley-on-the-Sea .