four o'clock
He renounced cards and such other costly diversions as was possible without lowering his standard as a gentleman and an officer , and of course the real privation was borne by the women of the family . He even ceased to rage at his wife , for she merely sat in her favorite chair , her hands folded , and looked at him with her subtle ironic smile . When Gisela met them , Frau von Erkel and her three daughters -LRB- all in their late twenties and unmarried -RRB- were living in a dingy old house in a respectable quarter , with one beer-sodden maid to relieve them of the heavy work and bake the cake for the Sunday `` Coffee . '' Colonel von Erkel and his three sons lived in bachelor quarters and called upon the women of the family every Sunday afternoon at precisely four o'clock . In full uniform , and imposing specimens of the German officer , they sat stiffly upon the uncomfortable chairs for about thirty minutes and then simultaneously escaped and were seen no more for a week . At first Gisela was intensely amused at the vagaries of the Erkels , but when she saw the four narrow beds in a row in one small monastic room -LRB- the first floor was let to lodgers to pay the rent -RRB- , and still more of their almost hopeless contriving to hold their position in Munich society , to say nothing of a bare sufficiency of food and raiment , her sympathies , always more deep than quick , were permanently aroused . But they were confined to the girls .