midnight before
or I thought so at least , from the bland tones in which those two words were uttered . I would then have bartered a couple of years of life for every hour she chose to grant to me , and so prolong my ecstasy . My happiness was increased by the extent of the money I sacrificed . It was midnight before she dismissed me . But on the morrow , for all that , my heroism cost me a good many remorseful pangs ; I was afraid the affair of the Memoirs , now of such importance for me , might have fallen through , and rushed off to Rastignac . We found the nominal author of my future labors just getting up . `` Finot read over a brief agreement to me , in which nothing whatever was said about my aunt , and when it had been signed he paid me down fifty crowns , and the three of us breakfasted together .