ten minutes to twelve
... Desperately she pressed her hand to her eyes . She knew the very page of Green on which Cromwell 's foreign relations were set forth ; knew where the paragraph began , near the foot of the page : what she could not get hold of was the opening sentence that would have set her mechanical memory a-rolling . The two hours drew steadily to a close . About half an hour beforehand the weakest candidates began to rise , to hand in their papers and leave the room ; but it was not till ten minutes to twelve that the `` crack '' girls stopped writing . Laura was to be allowed an extra twenty minutes , and it was on this she relied . At last , she was alone with the master . But though he was already dipping into the examination-papers , he was not safe .