five o'clock p.m.
There are a couple of ministers and a general . The rest of the party are of the artiste class , whose susceptibilities you can not wound ; authors , actresses , journalists , and danseuses , however touchy in the great world , are angels of good temper in small societies . '' With this he proceeded to give me a nearer insight into the kind of company into which I was to be introduced , -- a society , so far as I could learn , that a rigid moralist might have deemed `` more fair than honest . '' I learned , too , that I owed the distinction of my invitation to a wager between his Royal Highness the Duc de St. Cloud and my host ; the bet being that De Minérale was to find out a `` quatorzième '' and bring him to dinner , his search for one not to begin till after five o'clock p.m. ; the Prince being fully convinced that no regular practitioner in that walk any longer existed . `` Your presence , my dear sir , '' continued he , `` is worth , independent of the charm of your conversation , fifty Napoleons ; one-half of which I must beg you to accept ; '' saying which , he gracefully presented me with a purse , whose pleasant weight descended into my palm with a sensation indescribably soft and soothing . All this time we were rattling along towards Belleville at a rapid pace ; and although the rain swept past in torrents , the lightning flashed , and the wind tore the strong trees from their roots , and strewed the ground with their gigantic limbs , I sat in a revery of sweet and delightful fancies , the only alloy to my ecstasy being a passing fear that at each moment shot through me : Can this be real ? Am I awake ?