four
o’clock
I have since remarked that most women who ride well on horseback have little tenderness . Like the Amazons , they lack a breast ; their hearts are hard in some direction , but I do not know in which . At the moment when I begin to feel the burden of the yoke , when weariness took possession of soul and body too , when at last I comprehended the sanctity that true feeling imparts to love , when memories of Clochegourde were bringing me , in spite of distance , the fragrance of the roses , the warmth of the terrace , and the warble of the nightingales , -- at this frightful moment , when I saw the stony bed beneath me as the waters of the torrent receded , I received a blow which still resounds in my heart , for at every hour its echo wakes . I was working in the cabinet of the king , who was to drive out at four o'clock . The Duc de Lenoncourt was on service . When he entered the room the king asked him news of the countess . I raised my head hastily in too eager a manner ; the king , offended by the action , gave me the look which always preceded the harsh words he knew so well how to say .