two in the morning
This billiard expert knew only how to play bézique . This trainer of bull-dogs was the submissive slave of a poodle . This Mauvaise-Philibert was an Antigone . The next morning , on arriving at the office , I asked Meurtrier how he had employed the previous evening , and he instantly improvised , without a moment 's hesitation , an account of a sharp encounter on the boulevard at two in the morning , when he had knocked down with a single blow of his fist , having passed his thumb through the ring of his keys , a terrible street rough . I listened , smiling ironically , and thinking to confound him ; but remembering how respectable a virtue is which is hidden even under an absurdity , I struck him amicably on the shoulder , and said , with conviction : `` Meurtrier , you are a hero ! '' -LSB- Illustration -RSB-