a quarter to three
All her bitterness and sadness seemed to slip away with her grown-up manner ; and catching her infectious happiness , I too laughed and joked and talked as cheerfully and unconcernedly as though we were in truth back in Chelsea with no hideous shadow hanging over our lives . I even found myself telling her stories about the prison , and making fun of one of the chaplain 's sermons on the beauties of justice . At the time I remembered it had filled me with nothing but a morose fury . It was the little clock on the mantlepiece striking a quarter to three which brought us back to the realities of the present . `` I must go , Joyce , '' I said reluctantly , `` or I shall be running into some of your Duchesses . '' She nodded . `` And I 've got to do my hair by three , and turn myself back from Joyce into Mademoiselle Vivien -- if I can .