three
minutes to five
Of course in this , as in doing Latin proses or getting into mischief , practice makes perfect . Anthea was quite perfect . At the very moment when she opened her eyes she heard the black-and-gold clock down in the dining-room strike eleven . So she knew it was three minutes to five . The black-and-gold clock always struck wrong , but it was all right when you knew what it meant . It was like a person talking a foreign language . If you know the language it is just as easy to understand as English .