midday
Then he lifted him pickaback on his shoulders , and bidding him hold on tight to his father 's hair , carried him off proudly to the house . Jean was seven . Soon existence settled down to a settled routine . At midday the old dame would don her shawl and set off with the child in the direction of Grenelle . The pair followed the broad thoroughfares that ran between shabby walls and red-fronted drinking-shops . Generally speaking , a sky of a dappled grey like the great cart-horses that plodded past , invested the quiet suburb with a gentle melancholy . Establishing herself on a bench , while the child played under a tree , she would knit her stocking and chat with an old soldier and tell him her troubles -- what a hard life it was in other people 's houses .