a
quarter to five
You could n't telegraph -- you could n't get a message carried -- except by hand -- not if you were the president of the country . Even the car lines were stopped -- not a spark of power . The whole machinery of the city was at a standstill . `` Like the clock there , '' he said , and pointed to the face of the timepiece hanging shattered from the wall , its hands marking a quarter to five . She went back , jostling through the people . Bold ones were going into the houses to put on their clothes , timid ones commissioning them to throw theirs out of the windows . She saw Chinese servants , unshaken from their routine , methodically clearing fallen bricks and cornices from front steps to which they purported , giving the matutinal sweeping .