ten o'clock
`` The sight of a face that men have laid down their lives to see . '' Odo laughed and buckled on his sword . `` If you answer for the risk , I agree to take it , '' said he . `` At ten o'clock then , behind the Corpus Domini . '' If the ladies whom gallant gentlemen delight to serve could guess what secret touchstones of worth these same gentlemen sometimes carry into the adored presence , many a handsome head would be carried with less assurance , and many a fond exaction less confidently imposed . If , for instance , the Countess Clarice di Tournanches , whose high-coloured image reflected itself so complacently in her Venetian toilet-glass , could have known that the Cavaliere Odo Valsecca 's devoted glance saw her through the medium of a countenance compared to which her own revealed the most unexpected shortcomings , she might have received him with less airy petulance of manner . But how could so accomplished a mistress doubt the permanence of her rule ?