nine o'clock
They were out on rainy evenings , when their boots got worn down , and on hot evenings , when their linen clung to their skins . There were long periods of waiting and endless periods of walking ; there were jostlings and disputes and the nameless , brutal caresses of the stray passer-by who was taken by them to some miserable furnished room and came swearing down the greasy stairs afterward . The summer was drawing to a close , a stormy summer of burning nights . The pair used to start out together after dinner , toward nine o'clock . On the pavements of the Rue Notre Dame de la Lorette two long files of women scudded along with tucked-up skirts and bent heads , keeping close to the shops but never once glancing at the displays in the shopwindows as they hurried busily down toward the boulevards . This was the hungry exodus from the Quartier Breda which took place nightly when the street lamps had just been lit . Nana and Satin used to skirt the church and then march off along the Rue le Peletier .