seven o'clock
Nevertheless , the warm atmosphere of the room , the luxurious chair , the shaded lamp , the fitful gleams of firelight , the aroma of the tea -- all these soothing influences combined to mitigate his pain . He went on dreamingly , aimlessly , as if wandering through a fantastic labyrinth . With him reverie sometimes had the effect of opium -- it intoxicated him . ` May I take the liberty of reminding the Signor Conte that he is expected at the Casa Doria at seven o'clock , ' observed his valet in a subdued and discreet murmur , one of his offices being to jog his master 's memory . ` Everything is ready . ' He went into an adjoining octagonal room to dress , the most luxurious and comfortable dressing-room any young man of fashion could possibly desire . On a great Roman sarcophagus , transformed with much taste into a toilet table , were ranged a selection of cambric handkerchiefs , evening gloves , card and cigarette cases , bottles of scent , and five or six fresh gardenias in separate little pale blue china vases -- all these frivolous and fragile things on this mass of stone , on which a funeral _ cortège _ was sculptured by a masterly hand !