seven o'clock
The reception chamber was fitted in a simple but elegant style . Its arrangement suggested nothing of the fact that on the morrow the room would again be cleared and abandoned to the dust and the spider . The entrance hall was imposing with palms and ferns and the light of an immense candelabrum . At seven o'clock Grandemont , in evening dress , with pearls -- a family passion -- in his spotless linen , emerged from somewhere . The invitations had specified eight as the dining hour . He drew an armchair upon the porch , and sat there , smoking cigarettes and half dreaming . The moon was an hour high .