nine
o’clock
Without heeding the voice , he laid a hundred and twenty louis on the black and lost . Then to the torturing excitement of suspense succeeded the delicious feeling of relief known to the gambler who has nothing left to lose , and must perforce leave the palace of fire in which his dreams melt and vanish . He found Lousteau at Very 's , and flung himself upon the cookery -LRB- to make use of Lafontaine 's expression -RRB- , and drowned his cares in wine . By nine o'clock his ideas were so confused that he could not imagine why the portress in the Rue de Vendome persisted in sending him to the Rue de la Lune . `` Mlle. Coralie has gone , '' said the woman . `` She has taken lodgings elsewhere . She left her address with me on this scrap of paper . ''