five
o'clock
`` Confound him ! '' he said ; `` I wish he would let me conduct my own affairs in my own way . If I do n't stop him , he 'll carry the Princess Aline off by force and send me word where he has hidden her . '' The Hohenwalds had evidently departed for a day 's outing , as up to five o'clock they had not returned ; and Carlton , after loitering all the afternoon , gave up waiting for them , and went out to dine at Laurent 's , in the Champs Elysees . He had finished his dinner , and was leaning luxuriously forward , with his elbows on the table , and knocking the cigar ashes into his coffee-cup . He was pleasantly content . The trees hung heavy with leaves over his head , a fountain played and overflowed at his elbow , and the lamps of the fiacres passing and repassing on the Avenue of the Champs Elysees shone like giant fire-flies through the foliage .