About
ten o'clock
It would really amuse me to read the letters of my mousme 's friends -- and above all her replies ! August 10th . It rained this evening heavily , and the night was close and dark . About ten o'clock , on our return from one of the fashionable tea-houses we frequent , we arrived -- Yves , Chrysantheme and I -- at the familiar angle of the principal street , the turn where we must take leave of the lights and noises of the town , to climb up the dark steps and steep paths that lead to our dwelling at Diou-djen-dji . But before beginning our ascent , we must first buy lanterns from an old tradeswoman called Madame Tres-Propre , whose regular customers we are . It is amazing what a quantity of these paper lanterns we consume . They are invariably decorated in the same way , with painted nightmoths or bats ; fastened to the ceiling at the farther end of the shop , they hang in enormous clusters , and the old woman , seeing us arrive , gets upon a table to take them down .