nine o'clock
Hugo , as the supreme head of Hugo 's , had organized his establishment in such a manner as to leave no regular duties for himself , conformably to the maxim that a well-managed business is a business which runs smoothly and efficiently when the manager is not managing , and to that other maxim that the highest aim of the competent manager should be to make himself unnecessary . Hence he was perfectly at liberty to be wayward and freakish in his activities from time to time . And this happened to be one of his wayward and freakish mornings . There were , however , few young women in the common room to behold his aberration , for the hour was within two minutes of nine , and at nine o'clock the latest of the legionaries was supposed to be at her post . Three girls who were being hastily served with glasses of milk by a pink-aproned waitress politely feigned not to see him . Then another girl ran in , and she , too , had to pretend that the spectacle of Hugo pasting posters on mirrors was one of the most ordinary in life . Hugo glanced at this last comer in the mirror , and sighed a secret disappointment .