ten minutes to twelve
Here there was nothing but silence , the soft splash of the distant sea , the barking of a distant dog . The danger was vivid and actual but without the stimulus of that blood-red background . He glanced at his watch . It wanted still ten minutes to twelve . For a moment then he suffered his thoughts to go back to the new thing which had crept into his life . He was suddenly back in the Milan , he saw the backward turn of her head , the almost wistful look in her eyes as she made her little pronouncement . She had broken her engagement .