midnight
So , much against his will , he too had taken to going to bed early , in spite of the thorns that beset his pillow . It was therefore a great piece of good fortune for him -LRB- as well as for the doctor -RRB- when he encountered a man who had known the same world and spoken the same language as himself ; with whom he could exchange ideas , and who went to bed late . After Monsieur de Jordy , the Abbe Chaperon , and Minoret had passed one evening together they found so much pleasure in it that the priest and soldier returned every night regularly at nine o'clock , the hour at which , little Ursula having gone to bed , the doctor was free . All three would then sit up till midnight or one o'clock . After a time this trio became a quartette . Another man to whom life was known , and who owed to his practical training as a lawyer , the indulgence , knowledge , observation , shrewdness , and talent for conversation which the soldier , doctor , and priest owed to their practical dealings with the souls , diseases , and education of men , was added to the number . Monsieur Bongrand , the justice of peace , heard of the pleasure of these evenings and sought admittance to the doctor 's society .