midnight
All his life he never quite put away childish things ! I really believe that in bygone ages he would have moved the world with that look , and been another Peter the Hermit ! He became a pupil at the academy under De Keyser and Van Lerius , and worked harder than ever . He took a room nearly all window on a second floor in the Marché aux oeufs , just under the shadow of the gigantic spire which rings a fragment of melody every seven minutes and a half -- and the whole tune at midnight , fortissimo . He laid in a stock of cigars at less than a centime apiece , and dried them in the sun ; they left as he smoked them a firm white ash two inches long ; and he grew so fond of them that he cared to smoke nothing else . He rose before the dawn , and went for a swim more than a mile away -- got to the academy at six -- worked till eight -- breakfasted on a little roll called a pistolet , and a cup of coffee ; then the academy again from nine till twelve -- when dinner , the cheapest he had ever known , but not the worst . Then work again all the afternoon , copying old masters at the Gallery .