five o'clock
For the purpose I have named , it was necessary that I should make Tours my head-quarters for a time . I had traced descendants of the Calvin family out of Normandy into the centre of France ; but I found it was necessary to have a kind of permission from the bishop of the diocese before I could see certain family papers , which had fallen into the possession of the Church ; and , as I had several English friends at Tours , I awaited the answer to my request to Monseigneur de -- , at that town . I was ready to accept any invitation ; but I received very few ; and was sometimes a little at a loss what to do with my evenings . The _ table d'hôte _ was at five o'clock ; I did not wish to go to the expense of a private sitting-room , disliked the dinnery atmosphere of the _ salle à manger _ , could not play either at pool or billiards , and the aspect of my fellow guests was unprepossessing enough to make me unwilling to enter into any _ tête-à-tête _ gamblings with them . So I usually rose from table early , and tried to make the most of the remaining light of the August evenings in walking briskly off to explore the surrounding country ; the middle of the day was too hot for this purpose , and better employed in lounging on a bench in the Boulevards , lazily listening to the distant band , and noticing with equal laziness the faces and figures of the women who passed by . One Thursday evening , the 18th of August it was , I think , I had gone further than usual in my walk , and I found that it was later than I had imagined when I paused to turn back . I fancied I could make a round ; I had enough notion of the direction in which I was , to see that by turning up a narrow straight lane to my left I should shorten my way back to Tours .