seven in the morning
`` However , I have never asked the smallest service from my uncle in Court , and have paid more than a thousand visits gratis for him . And , after all , we are not apt to mince matters between ourselves . He will say Yes or No , and there an end . '' After this little soliloquy the famous physician bent his steps , at seven in the morning , towards the Rue du Fouarre , where dwelt Monsieur Jean-Jules Popinot , judge of the Lower Court of the Department of the Seine . The Rue du Fouarre -- an old word meaning straw -- was in the thirteenth century the most important street in Paris . There stood the Schools of the University , where the voices of Abelard and of Gerson were heard in the world of learning . It is now one of the dirtiest streets of the Twelfth Arrondissement , the poorest quarter of Paris , that in which two-thirds of the population lack firing in winter , which leaves most brats at the gate of the Foundling Hospital , which sends most beggars to the poorhouse , most rag-pickers to the street corners , most decrepit old folks to bask against the walls on which the sun shines , most delinquents to the police courts .