The
dejeuner or early meal was at nine o'clock, the dinner was at four.
After that, no eating or drinking was allowed in the Hotel Bauche.
There was a cafe in the village, at which ladies and gentlemen could
get a cup of coffee or a glass of eau sucre; but no such
accommodation was to be had in the establishment. Not by any
possible bribery or persuasion could any meal be procured at any
other than the authorised hours. A visitor who should enter the
salle a manger more than ten minutes after the last bell would be
looked at very sourly by Madame Bauche, who on all occasions sat at
the top of her own table. Should any one appear as much as half an
hour late, he would receive only his share of what had not been
handed round. But after the last dish had been so handed, it was
utterly useless for any one to enter the room at all.
Her appearance at the period of our tale was perhaps not altogether
in her favour. She was about sixty years of age and was very stout
and short in the neck. She wore her own gray hair, which at dinner
was always tidy enough; but during the 'whole day previous to that
hour she might be seen with it escaping from under her cap in extreme
disorder.
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