six o’clock
They started at two o'clock for some verdant nook about three miles from Plassans . Often they sought a meadow on the banks of the Viorne , where the gnarled willows steeped their leaves in the stream . But he saw nothing -- neither the big yellow flowers in the meadow , nor the swallows sipping as they flew by , with wings lightly touching the surface of the little river . Till six o'clock , seated in groups beneath the willows , his comrades and himself recited the Office of the Virgin in common , or read in pairs the ` Little Hours , ' the book of prayers recommended to young seminarists , but not enjoined on them . Abbe Mouret smiled as he stirred the burning embers of his vine-stock fire . In all that past he only found great purity and perfect obedience . He had been a lily whose sweet scent had charmed his masters .