one o'clock
Along Mirabeau and Molitor , after passing the Avenue de Versailles ; and when the street called Boileau appeared the carriage , its lanterns shooting tiny shafts of light on the road , headed for the _ Hameau _ , named after the old poet of Auteuil . There it stopped . Madame Patel and Chardon , a moment later , were walking slowly down the broad avenue of trees through which drawled the bourdon of the breeze this night in early May . It was one o'clock when they entered the pretty little house , formerly the summer retreat of the dead composer Patel . A winner of the _ Prix de Rome _ he had produced many operas and oratorios until his death , just a year previous to the _ première _ of `` The Iron Virgin . '' Of its immense success widow and librettist were in no doubt . Had they not witnessed it an hour earlier !