twenty minutes
to ten o'clock
`` It makes mine rather furious , too , '' said Bathsheba . `` However , there 's no getting out of it now ! '' It was a damp disagreeable morning . Nevertheless , at twenty minutes to ten o'clock , Oak came out of his house , and Went up the hill side With that sort of stride A man puts out when walking in search of a bride , and knocked Bathsheba 's door . Ten minutes later a large and a smaller umbrella might have been seen moving from the same door , and through the mist along the road to the church . The distance was not more than a quarter of a mile , and these two sensible persons deemed it unnecessary to drive . An observer must have been very close indeed to discover that the forms under the umbrellas were those of Oak and Bathsheba , arm-in-arm for the first time in their lives , Oak in a greatcoat extending to his knees , and Bathsheba in a cloak that reached her clogs .