ten past twelve
`` Mr. Ferrara ? '' began Dr. Cairn . `` You are five minutes too late , sir , '' said the man . `` He left by motor at ten past twelve . He 's gone abroad , sir . '' The exact manner in which mental stress will effect a man 's physical health is often difficult to predict . Robert Cairn was in the pink of condition at the time that he left Oxford to take up his London appointment ; but the tremendous nervous strain wrought upon him by this series of events wholly outside the radius of normal things had broken him up physically , where it might have left unscathed a more highly strung , though less physically vigorous man .