ten o'clock
He entreated Mlle. des Touches to see him for a moment . `` Mademoiselle only went to bed at three o'clock this morning , '' said the servant , `` and no one would dare to disturb her until she rings . '' `` When does she ring ? '' `` Never before ten o'clock . '' Then Lucien wrote one of those harrowing appeals in which the well-dressed beggar flings all pride and self-respect to the winds . One evening , not so very long ago , when Lousteau had told him of the abject begging letters which Finot received , Lucien had thought it impossible that any creature would sink so low ; and now , carried away by his pen , he had gone further , it may be , than other unlucky wretches upon the same road . He did not suspect , in his fever and imbecility , that he had just written a masterpiece of pathos .