five o'clock in
the afternoon
The street was narrow then , as it is now , and whilst Paris was cutting off the heads of her children for the sake of Liberty and Fraternity , she had no time to bother about cleanliness and sanitation . Rue Ecole de Médecine did little credit to the school after which it was named , and it was a most unattractive crowd that usually thronged its uneven , muddy pavements . A neat gown , a clean kerchief , were quite an unusual sight down this way , for Anne Mie seldom went out , and old Madame Déroulède hardly ever left her room . A good deal of brandy was being drunk at the two drinking bars , one at each end of the long , narrow street , and by five o'clock in the afternoon it was undoubtedly best for women to remain indoors . The crowd of dishevelled elderly Amazons who stood gossiping at the street corner could hardly be called women now . A ragged petticoat , a greasy red kerchief round the head , a tattered , stained shift -- to this pass of squalor and shame had Liberty brought the daughters of France . And they jeered at any passer-by less filthy , less degraded than themselves .