two o’clock in the
morning
So , for the last two months , she had seemed to the inhabitants of Cinq-Cygne more beautiful than at any other period of her life . Her cheeks became rosy ; hope gave pride to her brow ; but when old d'Hauteserre read the Gazette at night and discussed the conservative course of the First Consul she lowered her eyes to conceal her passionate hopes of the coming fall of that enemy of the Bourbons . No one at the chateau had the faintest idea that the young countess had met her cousins the night before . The two sons of Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre had passed the preceding night in Laurence 's own room , under the same roof with their father and mother ; and Laurence , after knowing them safely in bed had gone between one and two o'clock in the morning to a rendezvous with her cousins in the forest , where she hid them in the deserted hut of a wood-dealer 's agent . The following day , certain of seeing them again , she showed no signs of her joy ; nothing about her betrayed emotion ; she was able to efface all traces of pleasure at having met them again ; in fact , she was impassible . Catherine , her pretty maid , daughter of her former nurse , and Gothard , both in the secret , modelled their behavior upon hers . Catherine was nineteen years old .