three o’clock
Without this help , however , life would have been simply impossible to Raoul ; as it was , it became so irksome that many men , even those of the strongest constitutions , could not have borne it . A violent and successful passion takes a great deal of space in an ordinary life ; but when it is connected with a woman in the social position of Madame de Vandenesse it sucks the life out of a man as busy as Raoul . Here is a list of the obligations his passion imposed upon him . Every day , or nearly every day , he was obliged to be on horseback in the Bois , between two and three o'clock , in the careful dress of a gentleman of leisure . He had to learn at what house or theatre he could meet Madame de Vandenesse in the evening . He was not able to leave the party or the play until long after midnight , having obtained nothing better than a few tender sentences , long awaited , said in a doorway , or hastily as he put her into her carriage . It frequently happened that Marie , who by this time had launched him into the great world , procured for him invitations to dinner in certain houses where she went herself .