noon
His chocolate at six , his clothes at eight ; he left the house at nine and returned at noon . He left it again at two in the afternoon and returned at nine in the evening ; he supped ; he went to bed on the stroke of ten . Except on Sundays , high festivals , the first , the middle , and the last day of carnival , through all the time of my acquaintance with him , I never knew him break these habits but once , and that was when his mother died at Mestre and he had to attend the funeral . On that occasion he must rise at six , and miss his dinner at noon . He was furious , I never saw a man so angry . I can not tell how or when it was that I first spent the whole of my afternoons in Aurelia 's society , nor how or when it was that , instead of leaving her house at seven in the evening , I stayed on with her till the stroke of nine , within a few minutes of the doctor 's homecoming . It is a thing as remarkable as true that nothing is easier to form than a habit , and nothing more difficult to break .