nine o'clock
But there , on the bureau , he found a letter addressed to him in the handwriting of Valerie . At the moment he picked it up his valet entered the room in answer to his ring . Some intuition warned the duke to send the man away while he should read his letter . `` Have a warm bath ready for me at nine o'clock , Dubois , and order breakfast at half-past , '' he said . The man bowed and left the room . The duke dropped into a chair , and with a strange , vague foreboding of evil , opened the letter . Well might he shrink from the dread perusal of the story -- the story of her cowardice and folly , and of his own humiliation and despair .