five o’clock
`` Now , a sub-prefect 's salary only amounts to a thousand crowns , and there he stops in his arrondissement , wearing away time like the rung of a chair . I say nothing of the pleasure of going to the theatre without paying for your seat , for that is a delight which quickly palls ; but you can go behind the scenes in four theatres . Be hard and sarcastic for a month or two , and you will be simply overwhelmed with invitations from actresses , and their adorers will pay court to you ; you will only dine at Flicoteaux 's when you happen to have less than thirty sous in your pocket and no dinner engagement . At the Luxembourg , at five o'clock , you did not know which way to turn ; now , you are on the eve of entering a privileged class , you will be one of the hundred persons who tell France what to think . In three days ' time , if all goes well , you can , if you choose , make a man 's life a curse to him by putting thirty jokes at his expense in print at the rate of three a day ; you can , if you choose , draw a revenue of pleasure from the actresses at your theatres ; you can wreck a good play and send all Paris running after a bad one . If Dauriat declines to pay you for your _ Marguerites _ , you can make him come to you , and meekly and humbly implore you to take two thousand francs for them . If you have the ability , and knock off two or three articles that threaten to spoil some of Dauriat 's speculations , or to ruin a book on which he counts , you will see him come climbing up your stairs like a clematis , and always at the door of your dwelling .