Quotation (from Edmund Crispin's Holy Disorders)

Have begun to feel a bit of a cad, lounging around in the evenings reading journals and never posting. But there's absolutely nothing in my life I want to discuss right now, and I feel so entirely out of step with fandom I can't imagine addressing any of that, so how about a snippet from a Gervase Fen mystery?

The refreshment-room was decorated with gilt and marble; their inappropriate splendours cast a singular gloom over the proceedings. By the forethought of those responsible for getting people on to trains the clock had been put ten minutes fast, a device which led to frequent panics of departure among those who were under the impression that it showed the right time. They were immediately reassured by others, whose watches were slow. Upon discovery of the real hour, a second and more substantial panic occurred. Years of the Defence of the Realm Act had conditioned the British public to remain in bars until the last possible moment.