Six o'clock
Such a nice young man ! Never speaks a rough word ! '' `` Well , you see , there 's a great difference between an educated man and an old carabineer who is now a tax-collector . '' Six o'clock struck . Binet came in . He wore a blue frock-coat falling in a straight line round his thin body , and his leather cap , with its lappets knotted over the top of his head with string , showed under the turned-up peak a bald forehead , flattened by the constant wearing of a helmet . He wore a black cloth waistcoat , a hair collar , gray trousers , and , all the year round , well-blacked boots , that had two parallel swellings due to the sticking out of his big toes .