two o’clock
He read the `` Good Sense '' of the Cure Meslier , and went to Mass ; not that he had any choice between deism and Christianity , but he took the wafer when offered to him , and argued that he was therefore safe from the interfering claims of the clergy . The indefatigable litigant wrote letters on this subject to the newspapers , which the newspapers did not insert and never answered . He was in other respects one of those estimable bourgeois who solemnly put Christmas logs on their fire , draw kings at play , invent April-fools , stroll on the boulevards when the weather is fine , go to see the skating , and are always to be found on the terrace of the Place Louis XV . at two o'clock on the days of the fireworks , with a roll in their pockets so that they may get and keep a front place . The Cour Batave , where the little old man lived , is the product of one of those fantastic speculations of which no man can explain the meaning after they are once completed . This cloistral structure , with arcades and interior galleries built of free-stone , with a fountain at one end , -- a parched fountain , which opens its lion 's mouth less to give water than to ask it from the passers-by , -- was doubtless invented to endow the Saint-Denis quarter with a species of Palais-Royal . The place , unhealthy and buried on all four sides by the high walls of its houses , has no life or movement except in the daytime ; it is a central spot where dark passages meet , and connect the quarter of the markets with the Saint-Martin quarter by means of the famous Rue Quincampoix , -- damp ways in which hurried foot-passengers contract rheumatism .