ten minutes past nine
... Poor mother ! I wish she were here . I scarcely knew much of father ; he went to the city every morning , just as Harold does , by that dreadful ten minutes past nine . It seems to me that I have never heard of anything all my life but that horrible ten minutes past nine and the half-past six from London Bridge . I do n't hear so much about the half-past six , but the ten minutes past nine is never out of my head . Father is dead seven years , mother is dead three , and since her death I have kept house for Harold . ' Then as sleep pressed upon her eyelids Mildred 's thoughts grew disjointed .