about ten o’clock
Then came other interviews between them , and Seguin finally consented to sell on a system of annual payments , spread over a term of years , the first to be made in two years ' time from that date . As things stood , the property seemed likely to remain unremunerative forever , and so there was nothing risked in allowing the purchaser a couple of years ' credit . However , they agreed to meet once more and settle the final details before a formal deed of sale was drawn up . And one Monday morning , therefore , about ten o'clock , Mathieu set out for the house in the Avenue d'Antin in order to complete the business . That morning , as it happened , Celeste the maid received in the linen room , where she usually remained , a visit from her friend Madame Menoux , the little haberdasher of the neighborhood , in whose tiny shop she was so fond of gossiping . They had become more intimate than ever since La Couteau , at Celeste 's instigation , had taken Madame Menoux 's child , Pierre , to Rougemont , to be put out to nurse there in the best possible way for the sum of thirty francs a month . La Couteau had also very complaisantly promised to call each month at one or another of her journeys in order to receive the thirty francs , thereby saving the mother the trouble of sending the money by post , and also enabling her to obtain fresh news of her child .