About eight o’clock
The camellias , of which so much had been said from Angouleme to Dax , were banked on the staircase and in the vestibules . Wall partitions had disappeared to enlarge the supper-room and the ball-room where the dancing was to be . Bordeaux , a city famous for the luxury of colonial fortunes , was on a tiptoe of expectation for this scene of fairyland . About eight o'clock , as the last discussion of the contract was taking place within the house , the inquisitive populace , anxious to see the ladies in full dress getting out of their carriages , formed in two hedges on either side of the porte-cochere . Thus the sumptuous atmosphere of a fete acted upon all minds at the moment when the contract was being signed , illuminating colored lamps lighted up the shrubs , and the wheels of the arriving guests echoed from the court-yard . The two notaries had dined with the bridal pair and their mother . Mathias 's head-clerk , whose business it was to receive the signatures of the guests during the evening -LRB- taking due care that the contract was not surreptitiously read by the signers -RRB- , was also present at the dinner .