one minute before eleven
Why , there must be several hundred things I do n't do ! '' `` Thank Heaven you do n't ! '' remarked Miss Maitland . It was one minute before eleven when the card of Mr. Charles Wilkinson was borne gingerly , by a large youth from South Framingham who served as door boy , into the presence of Mr. Hurd . That gentleman , reading the bit of pasteboard with a grunt which might have been indicative of any one of a dozen invidious sentiments , opened the proximate corner of his mouth . `` Send him in , '' came from the brief orifice . A moment later Mr. Wilkinson stood in the presence of his prey .