three minutes after nine
There 'd be no horrid shop then , and no horrid women coming in for ha ` p ` orths and penn ` orths of paper . '' But as she ran through the autumn night-air she felt that , after all , there was something good in life . Her pulses , which had been languid enough in the stuffy little parlor at the back of the shop , now galloped fiercely . She arrived two or three minutes after nine , but still in fairly good time to see a number of dark heads surrounding a bright light . This light was caused by two lamps which had been placed on the ground in the old quarry ; Kathleen had brought them herself in a hamper . She had managed to buy them that day , and had smuggled them off without any one being the wiser . A large bottle of crystalline oil accompanied the lamps .