a quarter to one
My wife is expecting me . You promised to find me a match . '' Edward Henry waved the unlit cigarette as a reproach to Mr. Bryany 's imperfect hospitality . The clock of Bleakridge Church , still imperturbably shining in the night , showed a quarter to one when he saw it again on his hurried and guilty way home . The pavements were drying in the fresh night wind and he had his overcoat buttoned up to the neck . He was absolutely solitary in the long , muddy perspective of Trafalgar Road . He walked because the last tram-car was already housed in its shed at the other end of the world , and he walked quickly because his conscience drove him onwards .