a quarter past ten
Soon there would be the tapping of slippered heels on the walk of broken paving-stones outside , and for the time they would forget all these disturbances . But they were all rather glad that Lucia was to ask the Guru to give them a shorter lesson than usual . They waited . Presently the hands of the Cromwellian timepiece which was the nearest approach to an Elizabethan clock that Lucia had been able at present to obtain , pointed to a quarter past ten . `` My Guru is a little late , '' said she . Two minutes afterwards , Peppino sneezed . Two minutes after that Daisy spoke , using irony .