ten minutes to eleven
with marked impatience , I replied , `` Agreed , '' and within five minutes I had two hundred francs in my pocket , with the prospect of two hundred more during the next four and twenty hours . I was to have a free hand in conducting my own share of the business , and M. Charles Saurez was to call for the document at my lodgings at Passy on the following morning at nine o'clock . I flatter myself that I conducted the business with remarkable skill . At precisely ten minutes to eleven I rang at the Chancellerie of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs . I was dressed as a respectable commissionnaire , and I carried a letter and a small parcel addressed to M. de Marsan . `` First floor , '' said the concierge curtly , as soon as he had glanced at the superscription on the letter . `` Door faces top of the service stairs . ''