eleven minutes past
twelve
To this he added his entire library and private picture gallery , consisting of Ivanhoe , Ben-Hur , his father 's copy of Byron , a wireless manual , and the 1916 edition of Motor Construction and Repairing : the art collection , one colored Sunday supplement picture of a princess lunching in a Provençe courtyard , and a half-tone of Colonel Paul Beck landing in an early military biplane . Under this last , in a pencil scrawl now blurred to grayness , Milt had once written , `` This what Ill be aviator . '' What he was to wear was a piercing trouble . Till eleven minutes past twelve that day he had not cared . People accepted his overalls at anything except a dance , and at the dances he was the only one who wore pumps . But in his discovery of Claire Boltwood he had perceived that dressing is an art . Before he had packed , he had unhappily pawed at the prized black suit .