eight o’clock
Then she obtained a side view of the markets , and not a woman could walk along the Rue Rambuteau without being seen by her ; and she could have correctly stated whence the woman had come and whither she was going , what she had got in her basket , and , in short , every detail about her , her husband , her clothes , her children , and her means . `` That 's Madame Loret , over there ; she 's giving her son a fine education ; that 's Madame Hutin , a poor little woman who 's dreadfully neglected by her husband ; that 's Mademoiselle Cecile , the butcher 's daughter , a girl that no one will marry because she 's scrofulous . '' In this way she could have continued jerking out biographical scraps for days together , deriving extraordinary amusement from the most trivial , uninteresting incidents . However , as soon as eight o'clock struck , she only had eyes for the frosted `` cabinet '' window on which appeared the black shadows of the coterie of politicians . She discovered the secession of Charvet and Clemence by missing their bony silhouettes from the milky transparency . Not an incident occurred in that room but she sooner or later learnt it by some sudden motion of those silent arms and heads . She acquired great skill in interpretation , and could divine the meaning of protruding noses , spreading fingers , gaping mouths , and shrugging shoulders ; and in this way she followed the progress of the conspiracy step by step , in such wise that she could have told day by day how matters stood .