four o'clock
It was Natalina with a telegram : `` Letter received ; my apartment is paid for to end of June ; why not take possession of it ? '' From that moment onward nothing else mattered . The tumultuous noises in the drawing-room died down , and there was no sound but the voices of the auctioneer and his clerk , which rumbled like a drum in the empty chamber . It was four o'clock . Opening the window , Roma heard the music of a band . At that a spirit of defiance took possession of her , and she put on her hat and cloak . As she passed through the empty drawing-room , the auctioneer , who was counting his notes with the dry rustle of a winnowing machine , looked up with his beady eyes and said : `` It has come out fairly well , Madame -- better than we might have expected . ''