Twelve o'clock
She knew that this day must decide her fate , and she tried to nerve herself to bear all that it might bring her , even as the frailest women sometimes brace themselves to bear torture and death . At eleven in the forenoon , the duke left the house to go to the Hotel de Ville to keep an appointment that would detain him until three in the afternoon . Valerie knew all about this appointment , and had therefore fixed the hour of noon as the safest time for her interview with the count . Twelve o'clock , therefore , found her dressed in her deepest mourning , and seated in her private drawing-room , awaiting the advent of her most dreaded visitor , Waldemar de Volaski . Valerie , in an agony of terror , waited for her expected visitor . Did she love him , then ? Ah , no !