about three in the morning
in summer
The outer walls were covered with iron crossbars , showing , apparently , the insecurity of the building , which was owned by the wine-merchant , who also inhabited the entresol . The widow Poiret -LRB- nee Michonneau -RRB- kept furnished lodgings on the first , second , and third floors , consisting of single rooms for workmen and for the poorest class of students . Cerizet occupied one room on the ground-floor and another in the entresol , to which he mounted by an interior staircase ; this entresol looked out upon a horrible paved court , from which arose mephitic odors . Cerizet paid forty francs a month to the widow Poiret for his breakfast and dinner ; he thus conciliated her by becoming her boarder ; he also made himself acceptable to the wine-merchant by procuring him an immense sale of wine and liquors among his clients -- profits realized before sunrise ; the wine-shop beginning operations about three in the morning in summer , and five in winter . The hour of the great Market , which so many of his clients , male and female , attended , was the determining cause of Cerizet 's early hours . The Sieur Cadenet , the wine-merchant , in view of the custom which he owed to the usurer , had let him the two rooms for the low price of eighty francs a year , and had given him a lease for twelve years , which Cerizet alone had a right to break , without paying indemnity , at three months ' notice . Cadenet always carried in a bottle of excellent wine for the dinner of this useful tenant ; and when Cerizet was short of money he had only to say to his friend , `` Cadenet , lend me a few hundred francs , '' -- loans which he faithfully repaid .