About one o’clock
Mariotte served the spoiled child 's breakfast in his bed . The inflexible and semi-conventual rules which regulated the hours for meals yielded to the caprices of the chevalier . If it became desirable to extract from Mademoiselle du Guenic her array of keys in order to obtain some necessary article of food outside of the meal hours , there was no other means of doing it than to make the pretext of its serving some fancy of Calyste . About one o'clock the baron , his wife , and Mademoiselle were seated in the salon , for they dined at three o'clock . The baroness was again reading the `` Quotidienne '' to her husband , who was always more awake before the dinner hour . As she finished a paragraph she heard the steps of her son on the upper floor , and she dropped the paper , saying : -- `` Calyste must be going to dine again at Les Touches ; he has dressed himself . '' `` He amuses himself , the dear boy , '' said the old sister , taking a silver whistle from her pocket and whistling once .