noon
`` How is that ? '' `` Yes , the doctor called me , and I passed him in his egg through the half-open door . There he is again , at his mortar and his filter . We wo n't see him now before noon . '' Clotilde turned pale with disappointment . She drank her milk standing , took her roll in her hand , and followed the servant into the kitchen . There were on the ground floor , besides this kitchen and the dining-room , only an uninhabited room in which the potatoes were stored , and which had formerly been used as an office by the doctor , when he received his patients in his house -- the desk and the armchair had years ago been taken up to his chamber -- and another small room , which opened into the kitchen ; the old servant 's room , scrupulously clean , and furnished with a walnut chest of drawers and a bed like a nun 's with white hangings .