five o’clock
Felicite was now wholly absorbed in her triumph . She was at last about to realize a plan that she had long cherished and maturely deliberated , which would perpetuate by an imperishable monument the untarnished glory of the family . The plan was to devote her fortune , which had become considerable , to the construction and endowment of an asylum for the aged , to be called Rougon Asylum . She had already bought the ground , a part of the old mall outside the town , near the railway station ; and precisely on this Sunday , at five o'clock , when the heat should have abated a little , the first stone was to be laid , a really solemn ceremony , to be honored by the presence of all the authorities , and of which she was to be the acknowledged queen , before a vast concourse of people . Clotilde felt , besides , some gratitude toward her grandmother , who had shown perfect disinterestedness on the occasion of the opening of Pascal 's will . The latter had constituted the young woman his sole legatee ; and the mother , who had a right to a fourth part , after declaring her intention to respect her son 's wishes , had simply renounced her right to the succession . She wished , indeed , to disinherit all her family , bequeathing to them glory only , by employing her large fortune in the erection of this asylum , which was to carry down to future ages the revered and glorious name of the Rougons ; and after having , for more than half a century , so eagerly striven to acquire money , she now disdained it , moved by a higher and purer ambition .