About nine o'clock
France must suffer , France must stand alone in terrible humiliation , France must offer the self-sacrifice of fire and mount the altar herself ! `` Then , and only then , shall the nation , purified , reborn , rise and live , and build again , setting a beacon of civilized freedom high as the beacon we Americans are raising , ... slowly yet surely raising , to the glory of God , Scarlett -- to the glory of God . No other dedication can be justified in this world . '' About nine o'clock we were summoned by a Breton maid to the pretty breakfast-room below , and I was ashamed to go with my shabby clothes , bandaged head , and face the color of clay . The young countess was not present ; Sylvia Elven offered us a supercilious welcome to a breakfast the counterpart of which I had not seen in years -- one of those American breakfasts which even we , since the Paris Exposition , are beginning to discard for the simpler French breakfast of coffee and rolls . `` This is all in your honor , '' observed Sylvia , turning up her nose at the array of poached eggs , fragrant sausages , crisp potatoes , piles of buttered toast , muffins , marmalade , and fruit . `` It was very kind of you to think of it , '' said Speed .