about four in the afternoon
As yet no hope of his life had been cheated , and his heart swelled with the generous feelings that expand in the youthful soul . After the too lengthy feast of welcome prepared by his father , who awaited him with some friends , the impatient youth was conducted to a house , long familiar to him , standing in the Rue Teinture . His heart beat high when his father -- still known in the town of Bayeux as the Comte de Granville -- knocked loudly at a carriage gate off which the green paint was dropping in scales . It was about four in the afternoon . A young maid-servant , in a cotton cap , dropped a short curtsey to the two gentlemen , and said that the ladies would soon be home from vespers . The Count and his son were shown into a low room used as a drawing-room , but more like a convent parlor . Polished panels of dark walnut made it gloomy enough , and around it some old-fashioned chairs covered with worsted work and stiff armchairs were symmetrically arranged .