midnight
Paul de Géry was a martyr of that type . In his province he had always lived a very retired life , with a pious , melancholy old aunt , until the time when , as a student of law , originally destined for a profession in which his father had left an excellent reputation , he had been induced to frequent the salons of some of the counsellors of the court , old-fashioned , gloomy dwellings , with dingy hangings , where he made a fourth hand at whist with venerable ghosts . Jenkins ' evening party was therefore a début in society for that provincial , whose very ignorance and Southern adaptability made him first of all a keen observer . From the place where he stood he watched the interesting procession , still in progress at midnight , of Jenkins ' guests , the whole body of the fashionable physician 's patients ; the very flower of society , a large sprinkling of politics and finance , bankers , deputies , a few artists , all the jaded ones of Parisian high life , pale and wan , with gleaming eyes , saturated with arsenic like gluttonous mice , but insatiably greedy of poison and of life . Through the open salon and the great reception-room , the doors of which had been removed , he could see the stairway and landing , profusely decorated with flowers along the sides , where the long trains were duly spread , their silky weight seeming to force back the décolleté busts of their wearers in that graceful ascending motion which caused them to appear , little by little , until they burst upon one in the full bloom of their splendor . As the couples reached the top of the stairs they seemed to make their entrance on the stage ; and that was doubly true , for every one left on the last step the frowns , the wrinkles of deep thought the air of weariness and all traces of anger or depression , to display a tranquil countenance , a smile playing over the placid features . The men exchanged hearty grasps of the hand , warm fraternal greetings ; the women , thinking only of themselves , with little affected shrugs , with a charming simper and abundant play of the eyes and shoulders , murmured a few meaningless words of greeting : `` Thanks !