one o'clock before
Her talk ran chiefly upon nuns and convents , and her old acquaintance with Madame ; and it seemed to me that she had at one time driven a kind of trade , no doubt profitable enough , in escorting young ladies to establishments on the Continent ; and although I did not then quite understand the tone in which she spoke to me , I often thought afterwards that Madame had represented me as a young person destined for the holy vocation of the veil . When she was gone , I sat listlessly looking out of the window , and saw some chance equipages drive by , and now and then a fashionable pedestrian ; and wondered if this quiet thoroughfare could really be one of the arteries so near the heart of the tumultuous capital . I think my nervous vitality must have burnt very low just then , for I felt perfectly indifferent about all the novelty and world of wonders beyond , and should have hated to leave the dull tranquillity of my window for an excursion through the splendours of the unseen streets and palaces that surrounded me . It was one o'clock before Madame joined me ; and finding me in this dull mood , she did not press me to accompany her in her drive , no doubt well pleased to be rid of me . After tea that evening , as we sat alone in our room , she entertained me with some very odd conversation -- at the time unintelligible -- but which acquired a tolerably distinct meaning from the events that followed . Two or three times that day Madame appeared to me on the point of saying something of grave import , as she scanned me with her bleak wicked stare . It was a peculiarity of hers , that whenever she was pressed upon by an anxiety that really troubled her , her countenance did not look sad or solicitous , as other people 's would , but simply wicked .