about four in the afternoon
He devoted the first days therefore , to a careful study of the secrets of the street . A novice at such work , he dared not question either the porter or the shoemaker of the house to which Madame Jules had gone ; but he managed to obtain a post of observation in a house directly opposite to the mysterious apartment . He studied the ground , trying to reconcile the conflicting demands of prudence , impatience , love , and secrecy . Early in the month of March , while busy with plans by which he expected to strike a decisive blow , he left his post about four in the afternoon , after one of those patient watches from which he had learned nothing . He was on his way to his own house whither a matter relating to his military service called him , when he was overtaken in the rue Coquilliere by one of those heavy showers which instantly flood the gutters , while each drop of rain rings loudly in the puddles of the roadway . A pedestrian under these circumstances is forced to stop short and take refuge in a shop or cafe if he is rich enough to pay for the forced hospitality , or , if in poorer circumstances , under a _ porte-cochere _ , that haven of paupers or shabbily dressed persons . Why have none of our painters ever attempted to reproduce the physiognomies of a swarm of Parisians , grouped , under stress of weather , in the damp _ porte-cochere _ of a building ?