nine o'clock
Seeing the salon lighted up , the abbe would slowly hurry to come down . Every evening the backgammon and the piquet tables , the three boston tables , and the whist table were filled , -- which gave occupation to twenty-five or thirty persons ; but as many as forty were usually present . Jacquelin would then light the candles in the other rooms . Between eight and nine o'clock the servants began to arrive in the antechamber to accompany their masters home ; and , short of a revolution , no one remained in the salon at ten o'clock . At that hour the guests were departing in groups along the street , discoursing on the game , or continuing conversations on the land they were covetous of buying , on the terms of some one 's will , on quarrels among heirs , on the haughty assumption of the aristocratic portion of the community . It was like Paris when the audience of a theatre disperses . Certain persons who talk much of poesy and know nothing about it , declaim against the habits of life in the provinces .