two o’clock in the morning
The devil take me , now that I know this beautiful girl , this masterpiece of nature , is mine , the adventure has lost its charm . '' For all his light words , the youth in Henri had reappeared . In order to live until the morrow without too much pain , he had recourse to exorbitant pleasure ; he played , dined , supped with his friends ; he drank like a fish , ate like a German , and won ten or twelve thousand francs . He left the Rocher de Cancale at two o'clock in the morning , slept like a child , awoke the next morning fresh and rosy , and dressed to go to the Tuileries , with the intention of taking a ride , after having seen Paquita , in order to get himself an appetite and dine the better , and so kill the time . At the hour mentioned Henri was on the boulevard , saw the carriage , and gave the counter-word to a man who looked to him like the mulatto . Hearing the word , the man opened the door and quickly let down the step . Henri was so rapidly carried through Paris , and his thoughts left him so little capacity to pay attention to the streets through which he passed , that he did not know where the carriage stopped .