ten o’clock in the evening
I do n't want her as my wife or my sister . But she is a very curious and ingenious piece of machinery ; I like to see it in operation . '' `` Well , I have seen some very curious machines too , '' said Newman ; `` and once , in a needle factory , I saw a gentleman from the city , who had stopped too near one of them , picked up as neatly as if he had been prodded by a fork , swallowed down straight , and ground into small pieces . '' Re-entering his domicile , late in the evening , three days after Madame de Bellegarde had made her bargain with him -- the expression is sufficiently correct -- touching the entertainment at which she was to present him to the world , he found on his table a card of goodly dimensions bearing an announcement that this lady would be at home on the 27th of the month , at ten o'clock in the evening . He stuck it into the frame of his mirror and eyed it with some complacency ; it seemed an agreeable emblem of triumph , documentary evidence that his prize was gained . Stretched out in a chair , he was looking at it lovingly , when Valentin de Bellegarde was shown into the room . Valentin 's glance presently followed the direction of Newman 's , and he perceived his mother 's invitation .