a quarter to eight
`` What happened ? '' asked he . `` But the woman 's insane , that Ambermere parrot , I mean . Georgie and I were ten minutes late , and she had a jet tiara on , and why did she ask us to dine at a quarter to eight , if she meant a quarter to eight , instead of saying half-past-seven ? They were actually going into dinner when we came , a mournful procession of three moth-eaten men and three whiskered women . Upon which the procession broke up , as if we had been the riot act , and was arranged again , as a funeral procession , and Georgie with Lady Ambermere was the hearse . We dined in the family vault and talked about Lady Ambermere 's pug .