a quarter to twelve o'clock
Had this been a case in the court of an omniscient judge , he might have entered on his notes the curious fact that Sue had placed the minor for the major indiscretion , and had not said a word about the kiss . After tea that evening Phillotson sat balancing the school registers . She remained in an unusually silent , tense , and restless condition , and at last , saying she was tired , went to bed early . When Phillotson arrived upstairs , weary with the drudgery of the attendance-numbers , it was a quarter to twelve o'clock . Entering their chamber , which by day commanded a view of some thirty or forty miles over the Vale of Blackmoor , and even into Outer Wessex , he went to the window , and , pressing his face against the pane , gazed with hard-breathing fixity into the mysterious darkness which now covered the far-reaching scene . He was musing , `` I think , '' he said at last , without turning his head , `` that I must get the committee to change the school-stationer . All the copybooks are sent wrong this time . ''