nine o'clock
Mademoiselle might have kept her with her in the evening for company : she preferred , however , to send her away , to drive her out of doors , to force her to take a little air and diversion . She asked only that she would return at ten o'clock to help her to bed ; and yet when Germinie was a little late , mademoiselle undressed herself and went to bed alone very comfortably . Every hour that her mistress left her at leisure , Germinie passed in the shop . She fell into the habit of going down to the creamery in the morning , when the shutters were removed , and generally carried them inside ; she would take her _ café au lait _ there and remain until nine o'clock , when she would go back and give mademoiselle her chocolate ; and between breakfast and dinner she found excuses for returning two or three times , delaying and chattering in the back-shop on the slightest pretext . `` What a magpie you are getting to be ! '' mademoiselle would say , in a scolding voice , but with a smiling face . At half past five , when her mistress 's little dinner was cleared away , she would run down the stairs four at a time , install herself at Mère Jupillon 's , wait until ten o'clock , clamber up the five flights , and in five minutes undress her mistress , who submitted unresistingly , albeit she was somewhat astonished that Germinie should be in such haste to go to bed ; she remembered the time when she had a mania for moving her sleepy body from one easy-chair to another , and was never willing to go up to her room .