nine at night
Go back to your wife , or it 's all over and I shall grow angry ! '' The Countess Sabine had been anxious that her daughter 's wedding contract should be signed on a Tuesday in order that the renovated house , where the paint was still scarcely dry , might be reopened with a grand entertainment . Five hundred invitations had been issued to people in all kinds of sets . On the morning of the great day the upholsterers were still nailing up hangings , and toward nine at night , just when the lusters were going to be lit , the architect , accompanied by the eager and interested countess , was given his final orders . It was one of those spring festivities which have a delicate charm of their own . Owing to the warmth of the June nights , it had become possible to open the two doors of the great drawing room and to extend the dancing floor to the sanded paths of the garden . When the first guests arrived and were welcomed at the door by the count and the countess they were positively dazzled .