five o’clock in the morning
Du Tillet went to the card-table , where Claparon was already stationed , under orders ; Ferdinand thought that under shelter of a game of _ bouillotte _ his counterfeit banker might escape notice . Their demeanor to each other was that of two strangers , and the most suspicious man could have detected nothing that betrayed an understanding between them . Gaudissart , who knew the career of Claparon , dared not approach him after receiving a solemnly frigid glance from the promoted commercial traveller which warned him that the upstart banker was not to be recognized by any former comrade . The ball , like a brilliant rocket , was extinguished by five o'clock in the morning . At that hour only some forty hackney-coaches remained , out of the hundred or more which had crowded the Rue Saint-Honore . Within , they were dancing the _ boulangere _ , which has since been dethroned by the cotillon and the English galop . Du Tillet , Roguin , Cardot junior , the Comte de Grandville , and Jules Desmarets were playing at _ bouillotte _ .