twenty minutes to four
And meant them , for he was fundamentally as conventional and conservative as all men ... . But he cared less that he would be the laughing stock of New York than that his own soul felt like boiling pitch and that he was ashamed of himself . He looked at the clock . It was twenty minutes to four . There was neither love nor desire in him and he would have liked to throw himself on the divan and sleep . But he set his teeth and got to his feet . He would go through it , play up , somehow .