eleven
o'clock
The striking apparatus of a pretty little Louis XVI . clock that hung at the head of her bed , having got out of order , she noticed it . She sat for twenty minutes , with her eyes on the hands , waiting for it to strike ten , but when the hand passed the figure , she was astonished at not hearing anything ; so stupefied was she , indeed , that she sat down , no doubt overwhelmed by a feeling of violent emotion , such as attacks us in the face of some terrible catastrophe . And she had the wonderful patience to wait until eleven o'clock , in order to see what would happen , and as she naturally heard nothing , she was suddenly either seized with a wild fit of rage at having been deceived , and imposed upon by appearances , or else overcome by that fear which some frightened creature feels at some terrible mystery , and by the furious impatience of a passionate individual who meets with some obstacle , she took up the tongs from the fireplace and struck the clock so violently that she broke it to pieces in a moment . `` It was evident , therefore , that her brain did act and calculate , obscurely it is true , and within very restricted limits , for I could never succeed in making her distinguish persons as she distinguished the time ; and to stir her intellect , it was necessary to appeal to her passions , in the material sense of the word , and we soon had another , and alas ! a very terrible proof of this ! '' * * * * * `` She had grown up into a splendid girl ; a perfect type of a race , a sort of lovely and stupid Venus .