nine o’clock
I counted on this indifference to aid me in certain plans ; I was resolved to escape some day directly after dinner and rush to the Palais-Royal . Once seated at whist my aunt would pay no attention to me . Jean , the footman , cared little for Monsieur Lepitre and would have aided me ; but on the day I chose for my adventure that luckless dinner was longer than usual , -- either because the jaws employed were worn out or the false teeth more imperfect . At last , between eight and nine o'clock , I reached the staircase , my heart beating like that of Bianca Capello on the day of her flight ; but when the porter pulled the cord I beheld in the street before me Monsieur Lepitre 's hackney-coach , and I heard his pursy voice demanding me ! Three times did fate interpose between the hell of the Palais-Royal and the heaven of my youth . On the day when I , ashamed at twenty years of age of my own ignorance , determined to risk all dangers to put an end to it , at the very moment when I was about to run away from Monsieur Lepitre as he got into the coach , -- a difficult process , for he was as fat as Louis XVIII . and club-footed , -- well , can you believe it , my mother arrived in a post-chaise !