nine in the morning
The _ virtuosi _ of the _ quartier _ had discovered that the building was constructed in imitation of an ancient temple in Rome ; this erection , then fresh and new , reached only to the _ entresol _ . The pilasters were painted light green and gilded in the cornices , while , surmounting the architrave , were three little statues -- one held a torch , another a bow , and a third a bag ; they were therefore rumoured , I know not with what justice , to be the artistical representatives of Hymen , Cupid and Fortune . On the door was neatly engraved , on a brass plate , the following inscription : `` MONSIEUR LOVE , ANGLAIS , A L'ENTRESOL . '' And if you had crossed the threshold and mounted the stairs , and gained that mysterious story inhabited by Monsieur Love , you would have seen , upon another door to the right , another epigraph , informing those interested in the inquiry that the bureau , of M. Love was open daily from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon . The office of M. Love -- for office it was , and of a nature not unfrequently designated in the '' _ petites affiches _ '' of Paris -- had been established about six months ; and whether it was the popularity of the profession , or the shape of the shop , or the manners of M. Love himself , I can not pretend to say , but certain it is that the Temple of Hymen -- as M. Love classically termed it -- had become exceedingly in vogue in the Faubourg St. -- . It was rumoured that no less than nine marriages in the immediate neighbourhood had been manufactured at this fortunate office , and that they had all turned out happily except one , in which the bride being sixty , and the bridegroom twenty-four , there had been rumours of domestic dissension ; but as the lady had been delivered , -- I mean of her husband , who had drowned himself in the Seine , about a month after the ceremony , things had turned out in the long run better than might have been expected , and the widow was so little discouraged ; that she had been seen to enter the office already -- a circumstance that was greatly to the credit of Mr. Love . Perhaps the secret of Mr. Love 's success , and of the marked superiority of his establishment in rank and popularity over similar ones , consisted in the spirit and liberality with which the business was conducted .