nine o’clock
`` I do n't like meddlers , '' retorted Monsieur de l'Estorade , raising his voice more than I had ever known him do to me . `` And after all , if he had not been here to give you his arm you would not have gone . '' `` You are mistaken ; I should have gone alone ; for your servant , being master here , refused to accompany me . '' `` But you must certainly admit that if any acquaintance had met you at half-past nine o'clock walking arm-in-arm with Monsieur Dorlange the thing would have seemed to them , to say the least , singular . '' Pretending to discover what I had known for the last hour , I exclaimed : -- `` Is it possible that after sixteen years of married life you do me the honor to be jealous . Now I see why , in spite of your respect for proprieties , you spoke to Monsieur Dorlange in my presence of that Italian woman whom people think his mistress ; that was a nice little perfidy by which you meant to ruin him in my estimation . '' Thus exposed to the light , my poor husband talked at random for a time , and finally had no resource but to ring for Lucas and lecture him severely .