three o'clock
Duroy asked : `` Is M. Walter in ? '' `` M. Walter is engaged , '' was the reply . `` Will you please take a seat ? '' Duroy waited twenty minutes , then he turned to the clerk and said : `` M. Walter had an appointment with me at three o'clock . At any rate , see if my friend M. Forestier is here . '' He was conducted along a corridor and ushered into a large room in which four men were writing at a table . Forestier was standing before the fireplace , smoking a cigarette .