twenty minutes
to four
`` How long have you poor , long-suffering catfish been waiting here ? '' demanded Miss Barbara Toland , with a sort of easy sweetness that Julia found instantly enviable . `` Why , we 're all out in the foyer -- Mother 's here , chaperoning away like mad , and nearly all the others ! And '' -- she whisked a little gold watch into sight -- `` my dears , it 's twenty minutes to four ! '' Every one exclaimed , as they rushed out . Julia , unaccountably nervous , wished she were well out of this affair , and wondered what she ought to do . Presently some twenty-five or thirty well-dressed folk came streaming back down the main aisle in a wild confusion of laughter and talk .