seven o’clock
said the doctor gravely . `` Better , perhaps , if he had been . '' `` Much better , '' I answered . `` At seven o'clock we ate a rather tough dinner in the small , bare _ salle-à-manger _ , on the red brick floor of which sand grains were lying . Our only companion was a bearded priest in a dirty soutane , the aumônier of Beni-Kouidar , who sat at a little table apart , and greeted our entrance with a polite bow , but did not then speak to us . `` When the meal was ended , however , he joined us as we stood at the inn door looking out into the night . A moon was rising above the palms , and gilding the cupolas of the Bureau Arabe on the far side of the Market Square .