nine o'clock
Philidor was to keep the gate and between the performances was to make portraits of those who desired them . Their organization was perfection . Cleofonte was at his best when in the executive capacity . At nine o'clock Hermia mounted the platform -LRB- a piano box turned on its side -RRB- and began to thump the drum and cymbals . Her position was conspicuous and she began a little uncertainly , for it was one thing to choose one 's audience among the simple folk of the countryside , another to face the kind of crowd which now gathered to gaze up at her -- peasants , horse-fanciers , shop people , clerks on a holiday , with here and there a person of less humble station , but she bent to her work with a will , encouraged by the example of the Circassian lady next to her who was selling in brown bottles an elixir which was a cure for all things except love and the goiter . The sword-swallower next them was already busy , and the _ Homme Sauvage _ , a hirsute person , whose unprofessional mien was both kind and peaceable -LRB- as Yvonne had discovered unofficially last night -RRB- , was roaring horribly , at two sous the head , in his enclosure near by . The wooden horses of the _ man ge _ , upon which some children and a few soldiers from the garrison were riding , were already whirling on their mad career .