ten minutes to ten
`` My dear sir -- most certainly not . Indeed I hoped that you would consent to accept it for your own , as a -- '' `` No , I 'll return it . I daresay you will find , '' he added with a faint smile , but his grossest one , `` that my notes have not lessened its value exactly ! '' In the hall Queed looked at his watch ; ten minutes to ten . _ Twenty-five minutes to his visit upon the old professor ! _ However , let us be calm and just about it . The twenty-five minutes was not a flat loss : he had got Crozier by it .