about one o'clock
She had actually witnessed nothing ; but since the beginning of her convalescence her ears had heard , and she could piece the evidences together . There was never any sound in the flat , outside the kitchen , until noon . Then vague noises and smells would commence . And about one o'clock Madame Foucault , disarrayed , would come to inquire if the servant had attended to the needs of the invalid . Then the odours of cookery would accentuate themselves ; bells rang ; fragments of conversations escaped through doors ajar ; occasionally a man 's voice or a heavy step ; then the fragrance of coffee ; sometimes the sound of a kiss , the banging of the front door , the noise of brushing , or of the shaking of a carpet , a little scream as at some trifling domestic contretemps . Laurence , still in a dressing-gown , would lounge into Sophia 's room , dirty , haggard , but polite with a curious stiff ceremony , and would drink her coffee there . This wandering in peignoirs would continue till three o'clock , and then Laurence might say , as if nerving herself to an unusual and immense effort : `` I must be dressed by five o'clock .