seven o'clock
`` What can have become of her ? '' The nursemaid looked at me reproachfully . Already sundry rumours were flying about the hotel . Both in the office of the commissionaire and in that of the landlord it was whispered that , at seven o'clock that morning , the Fraulein had left the hotel , and set off , despite the rain , in the direction of the Hotel d'Angleterre . From words and hints let fall I could see that the fact of Polina having spent the night in my room was now public property . Also , sundry rumours were circulating concerning the General 's family affairs . It was known that last night he had gone out of his mind , and paraded the hotel in tears ; also , that the old lady who had arrived was his mother , and that she had come from Russia on purpose to forbid her son 's marriage with Mlle. de Cominges , as well as to cut him out of her will if he should disobey her ; also that , because he had disobeyed her , she had squandered all her money at roulette , in order to have nothing more to leave to him .