four in the afternoon
A certain nobleness in the details , the exquisite cleanliness of the furniture , and a perfect concord of men and things , all brought the word `` suavity '' to the lips . Few persons were admitted to the rooms used by the Marquis and his two sons , whose life might perhaps seem mysterious to their neighbors . In a wing towards the street , on the third floor , there are three large rooms which had been left in the state of dilapidation and grotesque bareness to which they had been reduced by the printing works . These three rooms , devoted to the evolution of the Picturesque History of China , were contrived to serve as a writing-room , a depository , and a private room , where M. d'Espard sat during part of the day ; for after breakfast till four in the afternoon the Marquis remained in this room on the third floor to work at the publication he had undertaken . Visitors wanting to see him commonly found him there , and often the two boys on their return from school resorted thither . Thus the ground-floor rooms were a sort of sanctuary where the father and sons spent their time from the hour of dinner till the next day , and his domestic life was carefully closed against the public eye . His only servants were a cook -- an old woman who had long been attached to his family -- and a man-servant forty years old , who was with him when he married Mademoiselle de Blamont .