five o’clock
The young man left them for a few minutes while he went to order a meal at the best eating-house in Taverny ; then , returning to fetch them , he led the way through the alleys cut in the forest . The dinner was cheerful . Roger was no longer the melancholy shade that was wont to pass along the Rue du Tourniquet ; he was not the `` Black Gentleman , '' but rather a confiding young man ready to take life as it came , like the two hard-working women who , on the morrow , might lack bread ; he seemed alive to all the joys of youth , his smile was quite affectionate and childlike . When , at five o'clock , this happy meal was ended with a few glasses of champagne , Roger was the first to propose that they should join the village ball under the chestnuts , where he and Caroline danced together . Their hands met with sympathetic pressure , their hearts beat with the same hopes ; and under the blue sky and the slanting , rosy beams of sunset , their eyes sparkled with fires which , to them , made the glory of the heavens pale . How strange is the power of an idea , of a desire ! To these two nothing seemed impossible .