five
o'clock
After dinner , they danced in the drawing-rooms , where a mad waltz would even restore energy to the gentlemen tired out by six hours spent in the field . Madame Desvarennes did not join in that wild existence . She had remained in Paris , attentive to business . On Saturdays she came down by the five o'clock train and regularly returned on the Monday morning . Her presence checked their wild gayety a little . Her black dress was like a blot among the brocades and satins . Her severe gravity , that of a woman who pays and sees the money going too fast , was like a reproach , silent but explicit , to that gay and thoughtless throng of idlers , solely taken up by their pleasure .