about two o'clock
This is the device by which the nobles of Provence elude the infamous Civil Code of M. de Bonaparte , a code which will drive as many girls of good family into convents as it will find husbands for . The French nobility , from the little I have been able to gather , seem to be divided on these matters . The dinner , darling , was a first meeting between your sweetheart and the exile . The Comte de Maucombe 's servants donned their old laced liveries and hats , the coachman his great top-boots ; we sat five in the antiquated carriage , and arrived in state about two o'clock -- the dinner was for three -- at the grange , which is the dwelling of the Baron de l'Estorade . My father-in-law to be has , you see , no castle , only a simple country house , standing beneath one of our hills , at the entrance of that noble valley , the pride of which is undoubtedly the Castle of Maucombe . The building is quite unpretentious : four pebble walls covered with a yellowish wash , and roofed with hollow tiles of a good red , constitute the grange . The rafters bend under the weight of this brick-kiln .