seven o'clock in the evening
`` Yes . '' `` We have a table with Liverdy , Rocdiane , and Landa ; make haste ; it is a quarter past seven . '' The dining-room was full , and there was a continuous hum of men 's voices . There were all the nocturnal vagabonds of Paris , idlers and workers , all those who from seven o'clock in the evening know not what to do and dine at the club , ready to catch at anything or anybody that chance may offer to amuse them . When the five friends were seated the banker Liverdy , a vigorous and hearty man of forty , said to Bertin : `` You were in fine form this evening . '' `` Yes , I could have done surprising things to-day , '' Bertin replied . The others smiled , and the landscape painter , Amaury Maldant , a thin little bald-headed man with a gray beard , said , with a sly expression : `` I , too , always feel the rising of the sap in April ; it makes me bring forth a few leaves -- half a dozen at most -- then it runs into sentiment ; there never is any fruit . ''