Eight o’clock
The two friends missed the three o'clock train , and it was real torture to have to spend two long hours more in that region , where everything weighed so heavily on their shoulders . Fortunately , they had forewarned Christine and Madame Sandoz that they might return by a night train if they were detained . So they resolved upon a bachelor dinner at a restaurant on the Place du Havre , hoping to set themselves all right again by a good chat at dessert as in former times . Eight o'clock was about to strike when they sat down to table . Claude , on leaving the terminus , with his feet once more on the Paris pavement , had lost his nervous agitation , like a man who at last finds himself once more at home . And with the cold , absent-minded air which he now usually displayed , he listened to Sandoz trying to enliven him . The novelist treated his friend like a mistress whose head he wished to turn ; they partook of delicate , highly spiced dishes and heady wines .