noon
with natures unsullied by the world , with the quiet thinker , and with such poets among the poets as have never fallen into any excess . Since the old men began housekeeping together , the day 's routine was very nearly the same for them both . They worked together in harness in the fraternal fashion of the Paris cab-horse ; rising every morning , summer and winter , at seven o'clock , and setting out after breakfast to give music lessons in the boarding-schools , in which , upon occasion , they would take lessons for each other . Towards noon Pons repaired to his theatre , if there was a rehearsal on hand ; but all his spare moments were spent in sauntering on the boulevards . Night found both of them in the orchestra at the theatre , for Pons had found a place for Schmucke , and upon this wise . At the time of their first meeting , Pons had just received that marshal 's baton of the unknown musical composer -- an appointment as conductor of an orchestra . It had come to him unasked , by a favor of Count Popinot , a bourgeois hero of July , at that time a member of the Government .