Six o'clock
From having revolved the same matter over and over again and again his mind had reached a deadlock and refused to function . Durtal merely found himself very tired , very drowsy , as one in a warm bath after a night of travel . `` I must go home pretty soon , '' he said when he could collect himself a little , `` for Père Rateau certainly has not cleaned house in the thorough fashion which I commanded , and of course I do n't want the furniture to be covered with dust . Six o'clock . Suppose I dine , after a fashion , in some not too unreliable place . '' He remembered a nearby restaurant where he had eaten before without a great deal of dread . He chewed his way laboriously through an extremely dead fish , then through a piece of meat , flabby and cold ; then he found a very few lentils , stiff with insecticide , beneath a great deal of sauce ; finally he savoured some ancient prunes , whose juice smelt of mould and was at the same time aquatic and sepulchral .