eleven o'clock
It is strange to me , even now when the story has grown old in my memory , to recall all that happened before the hands of that clock pointed again to twelve . And last year when I revisited the neighborhood and found a neat new house standing on the site of the ramshackle inn , I could not pass by without a queer feeling in my throat ; for it was there that the results of the duchess ' indiscretion finally worked themselves out to their unexpected , fatal , and momentous ending . Seldom , as I should suppose , has such a mixed skein of good and evil , of fatality and happiness , been spun from material no more substantial than a sportive lady 's idle freak . `` By the way , Mr. Aycon , '' said the duke , after we had drunk our toast , `` I have had a message from the magistrate at Avranches requesting our presence to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock . An inquiry has to be held into the death of that rascal Lafleur , and our evidence must be taken . It is a mere formality , the magistrate is good enough to assure me , and I have assured him that we shall neither of us allow anything to interfere with our waiting on him , if we can possibly do so . '' `` I could have sent no other message myself , '' said I. `` I will also , '' continued the duke , `` send word by Bontet here to those two friends of mine at Pontorson .