about ten o’clock
During the eight years that the sisters had been living together in the Rue de la Federation near the Champ de Mars , occupying the same big room with cheerful windows , a room whose coquettish cleanliness made them feel quite proud , Norine 's child had grown up steadily between his two affectionate mothers . For he had ended by confounding them together : there was Mamma Norine and there was Mamma Cecile ; and he did not exactly know whether one of the two was more his mother than the other . It was for him alone that they both lived and toiled , the one still a fine , good-looking woman at forty years of age , the other yet girlish at thirty . Now , at about ten o'clock that Sunday , there came in succession two loud knocks at the door . When the latter was opened a short , thick-set fellow , about eighteen , stepped in . He was dark-haired , with a square face , a hard prominent jaw , and eyes of a pale gray . And he wore a ragged old jacket and a gray cloth cap , discolored by long usage .