three o’clock in the
afternoon
So far , facts had contradicted her assertions , and silence for the future was more becoming : indeed the change in the family mode of living called for no explanation in a country where , as in Flanders , any one who lives up to his income is considered a madman . And yet , as her eldest daughter , Marguerite , approached her sixteenth birthday , Madame Claes longed to procure for her a good marriage , and to place her in society in a manner suitable to a daughter of the Molinas , the Van Ostron-Temnincks , and the Casa-Reals . A few days before the one on which this story opens , the money derived from the sale of the diamonds had been exhausted . On the very day , at three o'clock in the afternoon , as Madame Claes was taking her children to vespers , she met Pierquin , who was on his way to see her , and who turned and accompanied her to the church , talking in a low voice of her situation . `` My dear cousin , '' he said , `` unless I fail in the friendship which binds me to your family , I can not conceal from you the peril of your position , nor refrain from begging you to speak to your husband . Who but you can hold him back from the gulf into which he is plunging ? The rents from the mortgaged estates are not enough to pay the interest on the sums he has borrowed .