ten
minutes to five
`` The explanation , '' continued Hatch , `` is not very important to my story , but what followed upon it is ; for the very next day , as I was walking alone , I heard a voice in my ear , whispering : ` The Englishwoman would like to see you this evening at five . ' I turned round in amazement , and there stood the shopkeeper of whom I had made the inquiries . I thought , of course , that he was laying a trap for me . But he repeated his statement , and , telling me that he would wait for me on this spot at ten minutes to five , he walked away . `` I did not know what to do . One moment I feared treachery and proposed to stay away , the next I was curious and proposed to go . How in the world could there be an Englishwoman in Mecca -- above all , an Englishwoman who was in a position to ask me to tea ?