about four o'clock
Jacquelin , Mariette , and Josette received orders to appear in full dress . The garden was raked . The old maid regretted that she could n't come to an understanding with the nightingales nesting in the trees , in order to obtain their finest trilling . At last , about four o'clock , at the very moment when the Abbe de Sponde returned home , and just as mademoiselle began to think she had set the table with the best plate and linen and prepared the choicest dishes to no purpose , the click-clack of a postilion was heard in the Val-Noble . '' 'T is he ! '' she said to herself , the snap of the whip echoing in her heart . True enough ; heralded by all this gossip , a post-chaise , in which was a single gentleman , made so great a sensation coming down the rue Saint-Blaise and turning into the rue du Cours that several little gamains and some grown persons followed it , and stood in groups about the gate of the hotel Cormon to see it enter .