midnight
What a fool he was ! What a cursed , drivelling fool ! What , after all , was a kiss or two , compared with all the evil that might now result from his interference ? Haply Marius would have taken them and departed , and at midnight they would have been free to go from Condillac . The future would not have been lacking in opportunities to seek out and kill Marius for that insult . Why could he not have left the matter to the future ? But now , with Florimond to be murdered on the morrow at La Rochette , himself likely to be murdered within the hour at Condillac , Valerie was at their mercy utterly .