about nine o'clock
So they prattled on trippingly , eagerly discussing and appraising different fine fabrics -- striped taffeta , self-coloured china silk , muslin , gauze , nankeen . And old Brotteaux , as he listened to them , thought with a pensive pleasure of these veils that hide women 's charms and change incessantly , -- how they last for a few years to be renewed eternally like the flowers of the field . And his eyes , as they wandered from the three pretty women to the cornflowers and the poppies in the wheat , were wet with smiling tears . They reached Orangis about nine o'clock and stopped before the inn , the _ Auberge de la Cloche _ , where the Poitrines , husband and wife , offered accommodation for man and beast . The _ citoyen _ Blaise , who had repaired any disorder in his dress , helped the _ citoyennes _ to alight . After ordering dinner for midday , they all set off , preceded by their paintboxes , drawing-boards , easels , and parasols , which were carried by a village lad , for the meadows near the confluence of the Orge and the Yvette , a charming bit of country giving a view over the verdant plain of Longjumeau and bounded by the Seine and the woods of Sainte-Geneviève . Jean Blaise , the leader of the troop of artists , was bandying funny stories with the _ ci-devant _ financier , tales that brought in without rhyme or reason Verboquet the Open-handed , Catherine Cuissot the pedlar , the demoiselles Chaudron , the fortune-teller Galichet , as well as characters of a later time like Cadet-Rousselle and Madame Angot .