five in the morning
Flore reserved to herself the business of making Monsieur sell out the investments in Issoudun and its immediate neighborhood . The principal notary in Bourges was requested by Rouget to get him a loan of one hundred and forty thousand francs on his landed estate . Nothing was known at Issoudun of these proceedings , which were secretly and cleverly carried out . Maxence , who was a good rider , went with his own horse to Bourges and back between five in the morning and five in the afternoon . Flore never left the old bachelor . Rouget consented without objection to the action Flore dictated to him ; but he insisted that the investment in the Funds , producing fifty thousand francs a year , should stand in Flore 's name as holding a life-interest only , and in his as owner of the principal . The tenacity the old man displayed in the domestic disputes which this idea created caused Max a good deal of anxiety ; he thought he could see the result of reflections inspired by the sight of the natural heirs .