ten minutes to four
`` Now , you know , you 're not hard to please , '' murmured Mme Lerat . `` Why , one would have only just enough to buy thread with . Four queens , my dear . '' It was ten minutes to four . Zoe was astonished , could not understand why her mistress was out so long . Ordinarily when Madame found herself obliged to go out in the afternoons she got it over in double-quick time . But Mme Maloir declared that one did n't always manage things as one wished .