about nine o’clock
`` Indeed , you can still live , if you choose ! '' said her mother in a whisper . At this gay festival , amid these glorious creations produced by the resources of nature only , nothing seemed likely to wound Veronique , and yet it was here and now that she received her death-blow . The party were to return about nine o'clock by way of the meadows , the road through which , as lovely as an English or an Italian road , was the pride of its engineer . The abundance of small stones , laid aside when the plain was cleared , enabled him to keep it in good order ; in fact , for the last five years it was , in a way , macadamized . Carriages were awaiting the company at the opening of the last valley toward the plain , almost at the base of the Roche-Vive . The horses , raised at Montegnac , were among the first that were ready for the market .