one o’clock
On being questioned , Marguerite admitted everything to the duke , and advised him , without arriere-pensee , to concern himself with her no longer , for she felt incapable of carrying out what she had undertaken , and she did not wish to go on accepting benefits from a man whom she was deceiving . The duke did not return for a week ; it was all he could do , and on the eighth day he came to beg Marguerite to let him still visit her , promising that he would take her as she was , so long as he might see her , and swearing that he would never utter a reproach against her , not though he were to die of it . This , then , was the state of things three months after Marguerite 's return ; that is to say , in November or December , 1842 . At one o'clock on the 16th I went to the Rue d'Antin . The voice of the auctioneer could be heard from the outer door . The rooms were crowded with people . There were all the celebrities of the most elegant impropriety , furtively examined by certain great ladies who had again seized the opportunity of the sale in order to be able to see , close at hand , women whom they might never have another occasion of meeting , and whom they envied perhaps in secret for their easy pleasures .