seven o’clock
On all other subjects my father is laconic ; his mental capacity does not seem to me remarkable , and he willingly allowed his _ mouthpiece _ to talk for him . But here , in the matter of his parchments , he was loquaciously full of anecdotes , recollections , heraldic knowledge ; in short , he was exactly the old noble , ignorant and superficial in all things , but possessed of Benedictine erudition where the genealogy of his family was concerned . The _ session _ would , I believe , be still going on , if Jacques Bricheteau had not intervened . As the marquis was preparing to read a voluminous memorandum refuting a chapter in Tallemant des Reaux ' `` Historiettes '' which did not redound to the credit of the great house of Sallenauve , the wise organist remarked that it was time we dined , if we intended to keep an appointment already made for seven o'clock at the office of Maitre Achille Pigoult the notary . We dined , not at the table-d'hote , but in private , and the dinner seemed very long on account of the silent preoccupation of the marquis , and the slowness with which , owing to his loss of teeth , he swallowed his food . At seven o'clock we went to the notary 's office ; but as it is now two o'clock in the morning , and I am heavy with sleep , I shall put off till to-morrow an account of what happened there . May 4 , 5 A.M. I reckoned on peaceful slumbers , embellished by dreams .