about four o'clock
While he enters , and embraces his ward , let us look back and relate the causes of that absence , which , doubtless , caused as much uneasiness to our readers as to Nanette and Bathilde . It will be remembered how Buvat -- driven by fear of torture to the revelation of the conspiracy -- had been forced by Dubois to make every day , at his house , a copy of the documents which the pretended Prince de Listhnay had given him . It was thus that the minister of the regent had successively learned all the projects of the conspirators , which he had defeated by the arrest of Marshal Villeroy , and by the convocation of parliament . Buvat had been at work as usual , but about four o'clock , as he rose , and took his hat in one hand and his cane in the other , Dubois came in and took him into a little room above that where he had been working , and , having arrived there , asked him what he thought of the apartment . Flattered by this deference of the prime minister 's to his judgment , Buvat hastened to reply that he thought it very agreeable . `` So much the better , '' answered Dubois , `` and I am very glad that it is to your taste , for it is yours . '' `` Mine ! ''