eight in the morning
At this period he was forty years old , with gray hair of so pleasing a shade that women might at a pinch fall in love with it for it softened a somewhat melancholy countenance , blue eyes full of fire , a skin that was still fair , though rather ruddy and touched here and there with strong red marks ; a forehead and nose a la Louis XV. , a serious mouth , a tall figure , thin , or perhaps wasted , like that of a man just recovering from illness , and finally , a bearing that was midway between the indolence of a mere idler and the thoughtfulness of a busy man . If this portrait serves to depict his character , a sketch of this man 's dress will bring it still further into relief . Rabourdin wore habitually a blue surcoat , a white cravat , a waistcoat crossed a la Robespierre , black trousers without straps , gray silk stockings and low shoes . Well-shaved , and with his stomach warmed by a cup of coffee , he left home at eight in the morning with the regularity of clock-work , always passing along the same streets on his way to the ministry : so neat was he , so formal , so starched that he might have been taken for an Englishman on the road to his embassy . From these general signs you will readily discern a family man , harassed by vexations in his own household , worried by annoyances at the ministry , yet philosopher enough to take life as he found it ; an honest man , loving his country and serving it , not concealing from himself the obstacles in the way of those who seek to do right ; prudent , because he knew men ; exquisitely courteous with women , of whom he asked nothing , -- a man full of acquirements , affable with his inferiors , holding his equals at great distance , and dignified towards his superiors . At the epoch of which we write , you would have noticed in him the coldly resigned air of one who has buried the illusions of his youth and renounced every secret ambition ; you would have recognized a discouraged , but not disgusted man , one who still clings to his first projects , -- more perhaps to employ his faculties than in the hope of a doubtful success . He was not decorated with any order , and always accused himself of weakness for having worn that of the Fleur-de-lis in the early days of the Restoration .