a quarter to ten
`` Oh ! I 'm the promptest grocery clerk you ever saw ! '' boasted Dock , perhaps to hide a little confusion , and bolster up his nerve . `` After you had gone , or to make it positive at just a quarter to ten Mrs. Oskamp , who had dressed to go out , missed something that was on the table of the sitting room where you came for orders , and which she says she knows was there when you first arrived ! '' `` What 's this you 're a-sayin ' , Tom Chesney ? Want to make me out a thief , do you ? Better go slow about that sort of talk , I tell you ! ''