three o'clock
The luminous warmth of a bright May afternoon made the lofty windows of the hôtel de Mora as hot as the glass roof of a greenhouse ; its transparent hangings of blue silk could be seen from without between the branches , and its broad terraces , where the exotic flowers , brought into the air for the first time , ran like a border all the length of the quay . The great rakes scraping among the shrubs in the garden left on the gravelled paths the light footprints of summer , while the soft pattering of the water from the sprinklers on the green lawn seemed like its revivifying song . All the magnificence of the princely abode shone resplendent in the pleasant mildness of the temperature , borrowing a grandiose beauty from the silence , the repose of that noonday hour , the only hour in the day when one did not hear carriages rumbling under the arches , the great doors of the reception-room opening and closing , and the constant vibration in the ivy on the walls caused by the pulling of bells to announce somebody 's coming in or going out , like the feverish throbbing of life in the house of a leader of society . It was well known that until three o'clock the duke received at the department ; that the duchess , a Swede still benumbed by the snow of Stockholm , had hardly emerged from behind her somnolent bed-curtains ; so that no one came , neither callers nor petitioners , and the footmen , perched like flamingoes on the steps of the deserted stoop , alone enlivened the scene with the slim shadows of their long legs and the yawning ennui of their idleness . It happened however , on that day , that Jenkins ' maroon-lined _ coupé _ was waiting in a corner of the courtyard . The duke , who had been feeling badly the day before , felt still worse when he left the breakfast table , and lost no time in sending for the man of the pearls in order to question him concerning his singular condition . He had no pain anywhere , slept well and had his usual appetite ; but there was a most extraordinary sensation of weariness and of terrible cold , which nothing could overcome .