five
minutes past eight
`` Who do you s ` pose will call you ? '' `` Well , Miss Tarrant , I hope . '' `` She 'll have to square the other one first . '' Ransom took out his watch , which he had adapted , on purpose , several hours before , to Boston time , and saw that the minutes had sped with increasing velocity during this interview , and that it now marked five minutes past eight . `` Miss Chancellor will have to square the public , '' he said in a moment ; and the words were far from being an empty profession of security , for the conviction already in possession of him , that a drama in which he , though cut off , was an actor , had been going on for some time in the apartment he was prevented from entering , that the situation was extraordinarily strained there , and that it could not come to an end without an appeal to him -- this transcendental assumption acquired an infinitely greater force the instant he perceived that Verena was even now keeping her audience waiting . Why did n't she go on ? Why , except that she knew he was there , and was gaining time ?