seven o’clock
Etienne wrote to Bixiou : `` MY DEAR BOY , -- My Baroness has dropped into my arms , and will be fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase . I rely on you to come here , like one of Moliere 's old men , to scold your nephew Leandre for his folly , while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in my bedroom ; you must work on her feelings ; strike hard , be brutal , offensive . I , you understand , shall express my blind devotion , and shall seem to be deaf , so that you may have to shout at me . `` Come , if you can , at seven o'clock . `` Yours , Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who , in all Paris , most delighted in such practical jokes -- in the slang of artists , a _ charge _ -- Lousteau made a great show of settling the Muse of Sancerre in his apartment . He busied himself in arranging the luggage she had brought , and informed her as to the persons and ways of the house with such perfect good faith , and a glee which overflowed in kind words and caresses , that Dinah believed herself the best-beloved woman in the world .