a quarter to
twelve
A porter had come along and slammed the door ; the train was slowly moving ; Micky was vaguely glad that there had been no time in which to shake hands . A moment , and he was walking away alone down the platform . His hands were deep thrust in the pockets of his coat ; he took no notice of anything ; he walked on and out of the station . Well , this had been an eventful New Year 's Eve with a vengeance ; he glanced up at the clock in the dome behind him -- only a quarter to twelve now , and yet so much had been crowded into the past four hours . Since the moment when the Delands rang up to cancel his engagement to dine he seemed to have stepped out of the old world into a new . He wondered what Esther Shepstone was doing in the very horrid boarding-house of which she had told him -- if she was thinking of Ashton . What a cad the man was , what a cad !