ten o'clock in the evening
It was a great square building , and the Muffats had lived in it for a hundred years or more . On the side of the street its frontage seemed to slumber , so lofty was it and dark , so sad and convent-like , with its great outer shutters , which were nearly always closed . And at the back in a little dark garden some trees had grown up and were straining toward the sunlight with such long slender branches that their tips were visible above the roof . This particular Tuesday , toward ten o'clock in the evening , there were scarcely a dozen people in the drawing room . When she was only expecting intimate friends the countess opened neither the little drawing room nor the dining room . One felt more at home on such occasions and chatted round the fire . The drawing room was very large and very lofty ; its four windows looked out upon the garden , from which , on this rainy evening of the close of April , issued a sensation of damp despite the great logs burning on the hearth .