four o’clock
`` Cousin , look at those two men , '' said Leon , pointing out to him a former minister and the leader of the Left Centre . `` Those are two men who really have ` the ear of the Chamber , ' and who are called in jest ministers of the department of the Opposition . They have the ear of the Chamber so completely that they are always pulling it . '' `` It is four o'clock , '' said Bixiou , `` let us go back to the rue de Berlin . '' `` Yes ; you 've now seen the heart of the government , cousin , and you must next be shown the ascarides , the taenia , the intestinal worm , -- the republican , since I must needs name him , '' said Leon . When the three friends were once more packed into their hackney-coach , Gazonal looked at his cousin and Bixiou like a man who had a mind to launch a flood of oratorical and Southern bile upon the elements . `` I distrusted with all my might this great hussy of a town , '' he rolled out in Southern accents ; `` but since this morning I despise her !