five minutes to three
The barman and the landlord and the principal members of the landlord 's family were hard put to it to quench that funereal thirst . Constance , as she ate a little meal in the bedroom , could not but witness the orgy . A bandsman with his silver instrument was prominent at the counter . At five minutes to three the Vaults spewed forth a squirt of roysterers who walked on the pavement as on a tight-rope ; among them was the bandsman , his silver instrument only half enveloped in its bag of green serge . He established an equilibrium in the gutter . It would not have mattered so seriously if he had not been a bandsman . The barman and the landlord pushed the ultimate sot by force into the street and bolted the door -LRB- till six o'clock -RRB- just as a policeman strolled along , the first policeman of the day .