about nine o'clock
He did not make any answer , but took both her hands and held them in his own , and they walked back to the house in silence . At dusk a simple dinner was served , but there was a restraint upon the conversation . The two priests , the mayor , and the four farmers , who had been invited as witnesses , alone indulged in a little coarse gayety which generally accompanies a wedding , and when the laughter died away the mayor would try to revive it with a jest . It was about nine o'clock when the coffee was served . Out of doors , under the apple-trees , the open-air ball had just commenced ; the tapers which had been hung on the branches made the leaves look the color of verdigris , and through the open windows of the dining-room all the revelry could be seen . The rustics skipped round , howling a dance-tune , accompanied by two violins and a clarionet , the musicians being perched upon a kitchen table . The noisy voices of the peasants sometimes entirely drowned the sound of the instruments , and the thin music sounded as if it was dropping from the sky in little bits , a few notes being scattered every now and then .