four o’clock in
winter
As for her parents , they were an embarrassment to her in presence of the people she wished to know , and immediately after her marriage she almost got rid of them by hiring a little house for them at Montrouge . That step had cut short the frequent invasions of Monsieur Chebe and his long frock-coat , and the endless visits of good Madame Chebe , in whom the return of comfortable circumstances had revived former habits of gossip and of indolence . Sidonie would have been very glad to rid herself of the Delobelles in the same way , for their proximity annoyed her . But the Marais was a central location for the old actor , because the boulevard theatres were so near ; then , too , Desiree , like all sedentary persons , clung to the familiar outlook , and her gloomy courtyard , dark at four o'clock in winter , seemed to her like a friend , like a familiar face which the sun lighted up at times as if it were smiling at her . As she was unable to get rid of them , Sidonie had adopted the course of ceasing to visit them . In truth , her life would have been lonely and depressing enough , had it not been for the distractions which Claire Fromont procured for her . Each time added fuel to her wrath .