ten o’clock in the evening
`` I shall talk in a loud voice of anonymous letters . If the author of those received by Boleslas is there , I shall be in the best position to discover him ; provided that it is not Alba ... . Decidedly -- that would be sad ! '' It was ten o'clock in the evening , when the young man , faithful to his programme , arrived at the door of the large house on the Rue du Vingt Septembre occupied by Madame Steno . It was an immense modern structure , divided into two distinct parts ; to the left a revenue building and to the right a house on the order of those which are to be seen on the borders of Park Monceau . The Villa Steno , as the inscription in gold upon the black marble door indicated , told the entire story of the Countess 's fortune -- that fortune appraised by rumor , with its habitual exaggeration , now at twenty , now at thirty , millions . She had in reality two hundred and fifty thousand francs ' income .