nineteen minutes past five o'clock
Norma looked at a check book ; put it in her coat pocket . Then as her aunt 's question reached her preoccupied mind , she turned toward her with a puzzled expression . `` Why , Aunt Kate -- you do n't seem to understand ; I 'm going with Wolf to California this evening . '' It was exactly nineteen minutes past five o'clock when Wolf Sheridan walked into the Grand Central Station that afternoon . He had stopped outside to send his wife some flowers , and just a brief line of farewell , and he was thinking so hard of Norma that it seemed natural that the woman who was coming toward him , in the great central concourse , should suggest her . The woman was pretty , too , and wore the sort of dashing little hat that Norma often wore , and there was something so familiar about the belted brown coat and the soft brown furs that Wolf 's heart gave a great plunge , and began to ache -- ache -- ache -- hopelessly again . The brown coat came nearer -- and nearer .