afternoon, about four o’clock
Presently he devoted his leisure hours to shooting partridges instead of ladies . And he was right ; partridges can not shoot back ; whereas beautiful women , like Cupid , are all archers more or less , and often with one arrow from eye or lip do more execution than they have suffered from several discharges of our small shot . In these excursions , Edouard was generally accompanied by a thick-set rustic called Dard , who , I believe , purposes to reveal his own character to you , and so save me that trouble . One fine afternoon , about four o'clock , this pair burst remorselessly through a fence , and landed in the road opposite Bigot 's Auberge ; a long low house , with `` ICI ON LOGE A PIED ET A CHEVAL , '' written all across it in gigantic letters . Riviere was for moving homeward , but Dard halted and complained dismally of `` the soldier 's gripes . '' The statesman had never heard of that complaint , so Dard explained that the VULGAR name for it was hunger . `` And only smell , '' said he , `` the soup is just fit to come off the fire . ''