twelve o'clock
If any one called to see him the excellence of that instrument was his chief topic of conversation . Breakfast took up some little time ; with what deliberation those two human beings masticated their food ! Their digestions were perfect ; cancer of the stomach was not to be dreaded by them . They managed to get along till twelve o'clock by reading the `` Bee-hive '' and the `` Constitutionnel . '' The cost of subscribing to the Parisian paper was shared by Vinet the lawyer , and Baron Gouraud . Rogron himself carried the paper to Gouraud , who had been a colonel and lived on the square , and whose long yarns were Rogron 's delight ; the latter sometimes puzzled over the warnings he had received , and asked himself how such a lively companion could be dangerous . He was fool enough to tell the colonel he had been warned against him , and to repeat all the `` clique '' had said .