a quarter to eight
`` Did his sketches amount to anything ? '' asked Virgilia , herself reaching for the biscuits . `` Well , there were plenty _ of _ them . By a quarter to eight they had covered all the tables and chairs and about two-thirds of the floor . There was every evidence of that young man 's being after us -- a regular siege . I have no doubt he was waiting outside all through dinner ; he rang the bell the very minute poor unsuspecting grandpa turned up the gas in the front parlour . But that 's nothing to the one just before him . ''