seven o'clock
`` I must confess , monsieur , '' said she , `` that you have been carrying it rather far . '' He accepted the rebuke humbly . `` If you divined the intensity of my sufferings , you would be lenient , '' he murmured . `` Nevertheless , it was dishonest of me to moan so bitterly before seven o'clock , when my claim to the room legally begins . I entreat your pardon . '' `` It is accorded freely , '' said the lady , mollified by his penitence . `` She would be a poor mourner who quarrelled with the affliction of another . ''