eight o'clock in the evening
Young and beautiful , dressed in a picturesque and brilliant Spanish costume , she carried herself with the ease and dignity of a princess , and looked straight past , or rather through the staring crowd , fastened like inverted brackets to the tavern wall . Her great , dreamy eyes did not seem to note them . When she and her companion had entered the hall and closed the door behind them , every tilted chair came down to the floor with a bang , and many voices exclaimed in concert , `` Who the devil is she ? '' Curiosity was satisfied at eight o'clock in the evening , for at that hour Doctor Paracelsus Aesculapius , as he fantastically called himself , opened the doors of his traveling apothecary shop and exposed his `` universal panacea '' for sale , while at the same time , `` Pepeeta , the Queen of Fortune Tellers , '' entered her booth and spread out upon a table the paraphernalia by which she undertook to discover the secrets of the future . When the evening 's work was ended , Pepeeta at once retired ; but the doctor entered the bar-room , followed by a curious and admiring crowd . He was in a happy and expansive frame of mind , for he had done a `` land office '' business in this frontier village which he was now for the first time visiting . `` Have a drink , b-b-boys ? ''