ten minutes to five
`` How many lines have you at your house , Dunstable ? '' he asked . `` About eight hundred , sir . '' `` Then you had better write me eight hundred lines , and show them up to me in this room at -- shall we say at ten minutes to five ? It is now a quarter to , so that you will have plenty of time . '' Dunstable went , and returned five minutes later , bearing an armful of manuscript . `` I do n't think I shall need to count them , '' said Mr. Appleby .