nearly a quarter to nine
`` Yes , I think it has . I have heard of instances in which the bitumen coatings of mummy cases have softened under certain circumstances and become quite ` tacky . ' But , bless my soul ! here am I gossiping with you and wasting your time , and it is nearly a quarter to nine ! '' My guest rose hastily , and I , with many apologies for having detained him , proceeded to fulfil my promise to guide him to his destination . As we sallied forth together the glamour of Egypt faded by degrees , and when he shook my hand stiffly at the gate of the Bellinghams ' house , all his vivacity and enthusiasm had vanished , leaving the taciturn lawyer , dry , uncommunicative , and not a little suspicious . The `` Great Lexicographer '' -- tutelary deity of my adopted habitat -- has handed down to shuddering posterity a definition of the act of eating which might have been framed by a dyspeptic ghoul .