five minutes to twelve
`` I am here to pay it . '' `` Ah ! '' `` Principal and interest calculated up to twelve o'clock this eleventh day of March . It wants five minutes to twelve . I offer you principal and interest -- eight hundred and twenty-two pounds fourteen shillings and fivepence three farthings before these witnesses -- and demand the title deeds . '' Meadows hung his head , but he was not a man to waste words in mere scolding . He took the blow with forced calmness as who should say , `` This is your turn -- the next is mine . ''