noon
In spite of all these various events which kept the town in the choicest gossip , the banns were published in the churches and at the mayor 's office . Athanase prepared the deeds . As a matter of propriety and public decency , the bride retired to Prebaudet , where du Bousquier , bearing sumptuous and horrible bouquets , betook himself every morning , returning home for dinner . At last , on a dull and rainy morning in June , the marriage of Mademoiselle Cormon and the Sieur du Bousquier took place at noon in the parish church of Alencon , in sight of the whole town . The bridal pair went from their own house to the mayor 's office , and from the mayor 's office to the church in an open caleche , a magnificent vehicle for Alencon , which du Bousquier had sent for secretly to Paris . The loss of the old carriole was a species of calamity in the eyes of the community . The harness-maker of the Porte de Seez bemoaned it , for he lost the fifty francs a year which it cost in repairs .