eleven o'clock
This house is your own , remember ! '' Then , as with genuine affection they all protested and pressed him to stay , he was obliged to do so . However , he soon relapsed into silence and embarrassment , seated on the same chair as before , and listening moodily to those people who , although they were his relatives , seemed to be far removed from him . As it was barely eleven o'clock they resumed work , but every now and again there was some merry talk . On one of the servants coming for the provisions , Marie told the girl to call her as soon as it should be time to boil the eggs , for she prided herself on boiling them to a nicety , in such wise as to leave the whites like creamy milk . This gave an opportunity for a few jests from Francois , who occasionally teased her about all the fine things she had learnt at the Lycee Fenelon , where her father had placed her when she was twelve years old . However , she was not afraid of him , but gave him tit for tat by chaffing him about all the hours which he lost at the Ecole Normale over a mass of pedagogic trash .