five o'clock
Mother Coupeau and Gervaise , with white aprons tied on , were bustling all around , cleaning parsley , dashing for salt and pepper , turning the meat . They had sent Coupeau away so as not to have him underfoot , but they still had plenty of people looking in throughout the afternoon . The luscious smells from the kitchen had spread through the entire building so that neighboring ladies came into the shop on various pretexts , very curious to see what was being cooked . Virginie put in an appearance towards five o'clock . She had again seen Lantier ; really , it was impossible to go down the street now without meeting him . Madame Boche also had just caught sight of him standing at the corner of the pavement with his head thrust forward in an uncommonly sly manner . Then Gervaise who had at that moment intended going for a sou 's worth of burnt onions for the pot-au-feu , began to tremble from head to foot and did not dare leave the house ; the more so , as the concierge and the dressmaker put her into a terrible fright by relating horrible stories of men waiting for women with knives and pistols hidden beneath their overcoats .