five o'clock
In England it would be called an early lunch . At six o'clock the Frenchman dines , and even the working man calls this meal -- which an English laborer would call supper -- his dinner . The Barclays ' meals , therefore , differed more in name than in reality from those of their neighbors . Louis and Philippe Duburg came in at five o'clock , but brought a message that their sisters would come in with their father and mother , later . Melanie was neither surprised nor disappointed at the non-arrival of her cousins . She greatly preferred being with the boys , and always felt uncomfortable with Julie and Justine ; who , although little older than herself , were already as prim , decorous , and properly behaved as if they had been women of thirty years old . After tea was over , the four boys returned to their work of gathering plums ; while Melanie -- or Milly , as her father called her , to distinguish her from her mother -- picked up the plums that fell , handed up fresh baskets and received the full ones , and laughed and chattered with her brothers and cousins .