three o'clock
It was during the early days of June that the hatter moved in . The day before , Coupeau had offered to go with him and fetch his box , to save him the thirty sous for a cab . But the other became quite embarrassed , saying that the box was too heavy , as though he wished up to the last moment to hide the place where he lodged . He arrived in the afternoon towards three o'clock . Coupeau did not happen to be in . And Gervaise , standing at the shop door became quite pale on recognizing the box outside the cab . It was their old box , the one with which they had journeyed from Plassans , all scratched and broken now and held together by cords .