three o'clock
The dinner cost five hundred francs , and the noble provincial was feted on the same scale . Victurnien played a good deal , and , for his misfortune , at the fashionable game of whist . He laid out his days in busy idleness . Every day between twelve and three o'clock he was with the Duchess ; afterwards he went to meet her in the Bois de Boulogne and ride beside her carriage . Sometimes the charming couple rode together , but this was early in fine summer mornings . Society , balls , the theatre , and gaiety filled the Count 's evening hours . Everywhere Victurnien made a brilliant figure , everywhere he flung the pearls of his wit broadcast .