TEN o'clock in the evening
` Well , then , ' he articulated slowly , as if we were enemies whom he desired to confound , ` I tell you ... that now I love the girl more than ever . ' `` In our stupefaction , at a loss for reply , we shook hands with him . '' END AT TEN o'clock in the evening Count de Sagreda walked into his club on the Boulevard des Capucins . There was a bustle among the servants to relieve him of his cane , his highly polished hat and his costly fur coat , which , as it left his shoulders revealed a shirt-bosom of immaculate neatness , a gardenia in his lapel , and all the attire of black and white , dignified yet brilliant , that belongs to a gentleman who has just dined . The story of his ruin was known by every member of the club . His fortune , which fifteen years before had caused a certain commotion in Paris , having been ostentatiously cast to the four winds , was exhausted .