about seven
o'clock
But the roads must be very bad ; at this time , in the spring , they are sometimes hardly passable . '' And then a little later : -- `` They should have left ; perhaps in going through La Pipe they will stop to speak to the cure ; perhaps again he may have started as soon as he heard , without waiting for them . In that case he might be here at any moment . '' But the fall of night brought no one , and it was only about seven o'clock that the sound of sleigh-bells was heard , and her father and the doctor arrived . The latter came into the house alone , put his bag on the table and began to pull off his overcoat , grumbling all the while . `` With the roads in this condition , '' said he , `` it is no small affair to get about and visit the sick . And as for you folk , you seem to have hidden yourselves as far in the woods as you could .