noon
He is an expansive and imposing man , fat-covered , and white as a house . He never says anything and is always alone . A great personage he is ; he makes money ; he has amassed hundreds of thousands of francs . At noon and in the evening he is not to be seen , having dived into the room behind the shop , where he takes his meals in solitude . The rest of the time he just sits at the receipt of custom and says nothing . There is a hole in his counter where he slides the money in . His house is filling with money from morning till night .