"When I give orders I expect people to use their common sense.
Why isn't my tea ready?
It's five o'clock." "The clock's twenty minutes fast," said Kate.

"Who's been meddling with it ?" demanded her father, verifying the fact by his watch.
Miss Nugent shook her head.

"It's gained that since you regulated it last night," she said, with a smile.
The captain threw himself into an easy-chair, and with one eye on the clock, waited until, at five minutes to the hour by the right time, a clatter of crockery sounded from the kitchen, and Bella, still damp, came in with the tray.

Her eye was also on the clock, and she smirked weakly in the captain's direction as she saw that she was at least two minutes ahead of time.

At a minute to the hour the teapot itself was on the tray, and the heavy breathing of the handmaiden in the kitchen was audible to all.
"Punctual to the minute, John," said Mrs.Kingdom, as she took her seat at the tray.