nine o’clock
Madame is there by morning . She is engaged at the markets , and makes by this occupation twelve thousand francs a year , people say . Monsieur , when Madame is up , passes into a gloomy office , where he lends money till the week-end to the tradesmen of his district . By nine o'clock he is at the passport office , of which he is one of the minor officials . By evening he is at the box-office of the Theatre Italien , or of any other theatre you like . The children are put out to nurse , and only return to be sent to college or to boarding-school . Monsieur and Madame live on the third floor , have but one cook , give dances in a salon twelve foot by eight , lit by argand lamps ; but they give a hundred and fifty thousand francs to their daughter , and retire at the age of fifty , an age when they begin to show themselves on the balcony of the opera , in a _ fiacre _ at Longchamps ; or , on sunny days , in faded clothes on the boulevards -- the fruit of all this sowing .