four o’clock
This utter silence is the surest indication of an unalterable will . This last effort , the flash of an energy now waning , had caused the present weakness and somnolence of the old man . The fresh defeat and exile of the Bourbons , as miraculously driven out as miraculously re-established , were to him a source of bitter sadness . About six o'clock on the evening of the day on which this history begins , the baron , who , according to ancient custom , had finished dining by four o'clock , fell asleep as usual while his wife was reading to him the `` Quotidienne . '' His head rested against the back of the arm-chair which stood beside the fireplace on the garden side . Near this gnarled trunk of an ancient tree , and in front of the fireplace , the baroness , seated on one of the antique chairs , presented the type of those adorable women who exist in England , Scotland , or Ireland only . There alone are born those milk-white creatures with golden hair the curls of which are wound by the hands of angels , for the light of heaven seems to ripple in their silken spirals swaying to the breeze .