ten minutes past eleven
Hardly had Diva heard , than she plunged into the High Street , and , with suitable additions , told Miss Mapp , Evie , Irene and the Padre under promise in each case , of the strictest secrecy . Ten minutes later Irene had asked the defenceless Mr. Hopkins , who was being Adam again , what he knew about it , and Evie , with her mouse-like gait that looked so rapid and was so deliberate , had the mortification of seeing Miss Mapp outdistance her and be admitted into the Poppits ' house , just as she came in view of the front-door . She rightly conjectured that , after the affair of the store-cupboard in the garden-room , there could be nothing of lesser importance than `` the duel '' which could take that lady through those abhorred portals . Finally , at ten minutes past eleven , Major Flint and Captain Puffin were seen by one or two fortunate people -LRB- the morning having cleared up -RRB- walking together to the tram , and , without exception , everybody knew that they were on their way to fight their duel in some remote hollow of the sand-dunes . Miss Mapp had gone straight home from her visit to the Poppits just about eleven , and stationed herself in the window where she could keep an eye on the houses of the duellists . In her anxiety to outstrip Evie and be the first to tell the Poppits , she had not waited to hear that they had both come back and knew only of the challenge and that they had gone to the station . She had already formed a glorious idea of her own as to what the history of the duel -LRB- past or future -RRB- was , and intoxicated with emotion had retired from the wordy fray to think about it , and , as already mentioned , to keep an eye on the two houses just below .