seven o'clock
A creature of energy and of action , who felt herself to be above all danger , she attached no meaning to the word uneasiness . So she slept , on the night which followed that soiree , a sleep as profound , as refreshing , as if Gorka had never returned with vengeance in his heart , with threats in his eyes . Toward ten o'clock the following morning , she was in the tiny salon , or rather , the office adjoining her bedroom , examining several accounts brought by one of her men of business . Rising at seven o'clock , according to her custom , she had taken the cold bath in which , in summer as well as winter , she daily quickened her blood . She had breakfasted , ` a l'anglaise ' , following the rule to which she claimed to owe the preservation of her digestion , upon eggs , cold meat , and tea . She had made her complicated toilette , had visited her daughter to ascertain how she had slept , had written five letters , for her cosmopolitan salon compelled her to carry on an immense correspondence , which radiated between Cairo and New York , St. Petersburg and Bombay , taking in Munich , London , and Madeira , and she was as faithful in friendship as she was inconstant in love . Her large handwriting , so elegant in its composition , had covered pages and pages before she said : `` I have a rendezvous at eleven o'clock with Maitland .