three o'clock
she gasped out several times in a half-choked voice . * * * * * Silence had reigned for a long while in the smart town house of the Baroness de Vibray in the Avenue Henri-Martin ... . From without came no sound ; the avenue was quiet , deserted ; the night was dark . But when three o'clock struck , the bedroom of Madame de Vibray was still flooded with light . She had not left her writing-table since she had read the letter of her bankers , Messieurs Barbey-Nanteuil . She wrote on , and on , without intermission . At nine o'clock in the morning , the staff of that great evening paper , _ La Capitale _ , were assembled in the vast editorial room , writing out their copy , in the midst of a perfect hubbub of continual comings and goings , of regular shindies , of perpetual discussions .