three minutes after midnight
Nothing could have been more polite than the words or his way of speaking them , as he stood in the street with his hat in his hand . But to me they meant a threat , and as a threat they were intended . My talk with Godensky at the stage door , my pause to pick him up , and my second pause to set him down , had all taken time , of which I had had little enough at the starting , if I were to meet Ivor Dundas when he arrived . It was two or three minutes after midnight , or so my watch said , when we drew up before the gate of my high-walled garden in the quiet Rue d'Hollande . A little while ago I had been ready to seize upon almost any expedient for keeping Raoul away from my house to-night , but now , after what I had just heard from Godensky , I prayed to see him waiting for me . Nobody -LRB- except Ivor , concerning whom I 'd given orders -RRB- would be let in so late at night , during my absence , not even Raoul himself ; so if he had come to reproach me , or break with me , he would have to stand outside the locked gate till I appeared . I looked for him longingly , but he was not there .