eleven o’clock
The devotee of the Royal Lottery fetched twenty francs and gave them to the artist , who slipped them secretly into his brother 's hand . All the company were now assembled . There were two tables of boston ; and the party grew lively . Philippe proved a bad player : after winning for awhile , he began to lose ; and by eleven o'clock he owed fifty francs to young Desroches and to Bixiou . The racket and the disputes at the ecarte table resounded more than once in the ears of the more peaceful boston players , who were watching Philippe surreptitiously . The exile showed such signs of bad temper that in his final dispute with the younger Desroches , who was none too amiable himself , the elder Desroches joined in , and though his son was decidedly in the right , he declared he was in the wrong , and forbade him to play any more . Madame Descoings did the same with her grandson , who was beginning to let fly certain witticisms ; and although Philippe , so far , had not understood him , there was always a chance that one of the barbed arrows might piece the colonel 's thick skull and put the sharp jester in peril .