a few minutes after half past eight
`` What ? '' said Ned . `` A blank fog ! '' It was a few minutes after half past eight when Miss Peterkin chanced to meet her friend Mr. Carrington in the entrance hall of the Kings Arms . He was evidently going out , and she noticed he was rather differently habited from usual , wearing now a long , light top coat of a very dark grey hue , and a dark coloured felt hat . They were not quite so becoming as his ordinary garb , she thought , but then Mr. Carrington looked the gentleman in anything . `` Are you going to desert us to-night , Mr. Carrington ? ''