nine o’clock
So great a reserve on the part of a venerable lady who must assuredly have passed the age at which the interest of young men is to be feared , seemed to him exaggerated . The lessons , however , were good ones , given with great clearness , the teacher having an excellent system of demonstration , and only one fault , that of becoming absorbed in silences , broken by sudden starts and exclamations let off like rockets . Apart from this , he was the best of masters , intelligent , patient , and conscientious , and Paul learned to know his way through the complex labyrinth of commercial books and resigned himself to ask nothing beyond . One evening , towards nine o'clock , as the young man had risen to go , M. Joyeuse asked him if he would do him the honour of taking a cup of tea with his family , a custom dating from the time when Mme. Joyeuse , _ nee _ de Saint-Amand , was alive , she having been used to receive her friends on Thursdays . Since her death and the change in the financial position , the friends had become dispersed ; but his little weekly function had been kept up . Paul having accepted , the good old fellow opened the door and called : `` Bonne Maman ! '' An alert footstep in the passage , and immediately the face of a girl of twenty , in a halo of abundant brown hair , made its appearance .