midnight
Paul de Gery was that martyr . Away yonder in his country home he had always lived a very retired existence with an old , pious , and gloomy aunt , up to the time when the law-student , destined in the first instance to the career in which his father had left an excellent reputation , had found himself introduced to a few judges ' drawing-rooms , ancient , melancholy dwellings with faded pier-glasses , where he used to go to make a fourth at whist with venerable shadows . Jenkins 's evening party was therefore a _ debut _ for this provincial , of whom his very ignorance and his southern adaptability made immediately an observer . From the place where he stood , he watched the curious defile of Jenkins 's guests which had not yet come to an end at midnight ; all the clients of the fashionable physician ; the fine flower of society ; a strong political and financial element , bankers , deputies , a few artists , all the jaded people of Parisian `` high life , '' wan-faced , with glittering eyes , saturated with arsenic like greedy mice , but with appetite insatiable for poison and for life . The drawing-room being thrown open , the vast antechamber of which the doors had been removed to be seen , laden with flowers at the sides , the principal staircase of the mansion , over which swept , now shaken out to their full extent , the long trains , whose silky weight seemed to give a backward pull to the undraped busts of the women in the course of that pretty ascending movement which brought them into view , little by little , till the complete flower of their splendour was reached . The couples as they gained the top seemed to be making an entry on the stage of a theatre ; and that was twice true , since each person left on the last step the contracted eyebrows , the lines that marked preoccupation , the wearied air , his vexations , his sorrows , to display instead a contented face , a gay smile over the reposeful harmony of the features . The men exchanged honest shakes of the hand , exhibitions of fraternal good-feeling ; the women , preoccupied with themselves , as they stood making little caracoling movements , with trembling graces , play of eyes and shoulders , murmured , without meaning anything , a few words of greeting : `` Thank you -- oh , thank you !