nine o'clock
I should never have heard anything so amusing with the vine-dressers of Montbars . I ought to say that the worthy M. Barreau caused us all to be served with a hearty , well-irrigated lunch in his office , which was filled to the ceiling with iced drinks and refreshments , thereby putting every one of us in an excellent humor , which was maintained throughout the evening by glasses of punch and champagne whisked from the salvers as they passed . The masters , however , were not so contented as we were . When I reached my post , at nine o'clock , I was struck by the anxious , nervous face of the Nabob , whom I spied walking with M. de Géry through the brilliantly-lighted , empty salons , talking earnestly and gesticulating wildly . `` I will kill him , '' he said , `` I will kill him . '' The other tried to soothe him , then Madame appeared and they talked about something else . A magnificent figure of a woman , that Levantine , twice as powerful as I am , and dazzling to look at with her diamond diadem , the jewels that covered her huge white shoulders , her back as round as her breast , her waist squeezed into a breastplate of greenish gold , which extended in long stripes the whole length of her skirt .