twelve o'clock
`` A parrot ? But to what amount did she advance money ? '' `` I 'll tell you ; the parrot was well known ; it belonged to a Madame Herbelot , the widow of a factor , living close by , and it was also well understood that Madame Herbelot valued the parrot as much as she did her life . Well , Mother Burette said to her , ` I will lend you ten francs on your bird , but if by this day week at twelve o'clock I do not receive twenty francs with interest -LRB- it would amount to that in round numbers -RRB- , if I am not paid my twenty francs , with the expenses of his keep , I shall give your Polly a trifling dose of arsenic mixed with his food . ' She knew her customer well , bless you ! However , by this threat Mother Burette received her twenty francs at the end of seven days , and Madame Herbelot got back her disagreeable , screaming parrot . '' `` Mother Burette has no other way of living besides the two you have named , I suppose ? ''