eight in the
morning
To the right and left of the house door ran the corridor , from whose walls hung another exhibit of black canvases , most of them unframed , in which could be made out absolutely nothing ; only in one of them , after very patient scrutiny , one might guess at a red cock pecking at the leaves of a green cabbage . Upon this corridor opened the bedrooms , in which , until very late in the afternoon , dirty socks and torn slippers were usually seen strewn upon the floor , while on the unmade beds lay collars and cuffs . Almost all the boarders in that house got up late , except two travelling salesmen , a bookkeeper and a priest , who arose early through love of their occupations , and an old gentleman who did so through habit or for reasons of hygiene . The bookkeeper would be off , without breakfast , at eight in the morning ; the priest left _ in albis _ to say mass ; but the salesmen had the audacious presumption to eat a bite in the house , and the landlady resorted to a very simple procedure to send them off without so much as a sip of water ; these two agents began work between half-past nine and ten ; they retired very late , bidding their landlady wake them at eight-thirty . She would see to it that they were not aroused until ten . When they awoke and saw the time , they would jump out of bed , hurriedly dress and dash off like a shot , cursing the landlady . Then , when the feminine element of the house gave signs of life , every nook would echo with cries , discordant voices , conversations shouted from one bedchamber to another , and out of the rooms , their hands armed with the night-service , would come the landlady , one of Doña Violante 's daughters , a tall , obese Biscayan Lady , and another woman whom they called the Baroness .