eight o'clock in the evening
Then , turning toward the deserted recess in her room , she said , addressing vacancy -- `` Is it not thus that you would have acted , my poor Chevreuse ? Yes , yes ; I know it is . '' And , like a perfume of days gone by , her youth , her imagination , and her happiness , seemed to return to her with the echo of this invocation . At eight o'clock in the evening , every one had assembled in the queen-mother 's apartments . Anne of Austria , in full dress , beautiful still , from former loveliness , and from all the resources which coquetry can command at the hands of clever assistants , concealed , or rather pretended to conceal , from the crowd of young courtiers who surrounded her , and who still admired her , thanks to the combination of circumstances which we have indicated in the preceding chapter , the ravages , which were already visible , of the acute suffering to which she finally yielded a few years later . Madame , almost as great a coquette as Anne of Austria , and the queen , simple and natural as usual , were seated beside her , each contending for her good graces . The ladies of honor , united in a body , in order to resist with greater effect , and consequently with more success , the witty and lively conversations which the young men held about them , were enabled like a battalion formed in square , to offer each other the means of attack and defense which were thus at their command .