two o’clock
Monsieur Homais dragged him off to the large Cafe de la Normandie , which he entered majestically , not raising his hat , thinking it very provincial to uncover in any public place . Emma waited for Leon three quarters of an hour . At last she ran to his office ; and , lost in all sorts of conjectures , accusing him of indifference , and reproaching herself for her weakness , she spent the afternoon , her face pressed against the window-panes . At two o'clock they were still at a table opposite each other . The large room was emptying ; the stove-pipe , in the shape of a palm-tree , spread its gilt leaves over the white ceiling , and near them , outside the window , in the bright sunshine , a little fountain gurgled in a white basin , where ; in the midst of watercress and asparagus , three torpid lobsters stretched across to some quails that lay heaped up in a pile on their sides . Homais was enjoying himself . Although he was even more intoxicated with the luxury than the rich fare , the Pommard wine all the same rather excited his faculties ; and when the omelette au rhum * appeared , he began propounding immoral theories about women .