a quarter to five
* * * * * Julia said afterwards that receipts for the payment of such debts were unnecessary and never given ; which was perhaps as well , for the one she received in the dusk was not of a kind recognised at law . Could it afterwards have been produced it would not have proved the payment of money , though at the time it proved several things , principally the fact that , though friendship and comradeship are fine and excellent things , there are simple primitive passions which leap up through them and transfigure them and forget them , and it is these which make man man , and woman woman , and life worth living , and the world worth winning and losing , too , and bring the kingdom of heaven to earth again . It also proved how exceedingly firmly a man who is in the habit of wearing a single eyeglass must screw it into his eye , for , as Julia remarked with some surprise , the one which interested her did not fall out . * * * * * Mr. Gillat came home with his fir-cones at a quarter to five . And when he came he saw that , to him , most fascinating sight -- a motor-car , standing empty and quiet by the gate . He looked at it with keen interest , then he looked round the empty landscape for its owner , and not seeing him , wondered if he was in the house . He put away the cones and came to the conclusion that the owner was not there and the car was an abandoned derelict .