seven o’clock at night
A narrow staircase , a narrow door , a succession of rooms with brick floors , all small and cold , and in the last an old maid with a false front and black thread mitts , reading a soiled copy of the ` Journal pour Tous , ' and apparently very much annoyed to be disturbed in her reading . Mademoiselle Le Mire -LRB- written in two words -RRB- received the father and daughter without rising , discoursed at great length of the rank she had lost , of her father , an old nobleman of Le Rouergue -- it is most extraordinary how many old noblemen Le Rouergue has produced ! -- and of an unfaithful steward who had carried off their whole fortune . She instantly aroused the sympathies of M. Chebe , for whom decayed gentlefolk had an irresistible charm , and he went away overjoyed , promising his daughter to call for her at seven o'clock at night in accordance with the terms agreed upon . The apprentice was at once ushered into the still empty workroom . Mademoiselle Le Mire seated her in front of a great drawer filled with pearls , needles , and bodkins , with instalments of four-sou novels thrown in at random among them . It was Sidonie 's business to sort the pearls and string them in necklaces of equal length , which were tied together to be sold to the small dealers .