one o’clock
Barbet , who was never at a loss , made the consoling remark that breakfasts at restaurants were like funerals , where , as every one knew , eleven o'clock meant mid-day . Sure enough , shortly before that hour , two gentlemen , with pointed beards , exhaling a strong odor of tobacco , made their appearance . Thuillier thanked them effusively for the `` honor '' they had done him ; after which came another long period of waiting , of which we shall not relate the tortures . At one o'clock the assembled contingent comprised five of the invited guests , Barbet and la Peyrade not included . It is scarcely necessary to say that none of the self-respecting journalists of the better papers had taken any notice of the absurd invitation . Breakfast now had to be served to this reduced number . A few polite phrases that reached Thuillier 's ears about the `` immense '' interest of his publication , failed to blind him to the bitterness of his discomfiture ; and without the gaiety of the publisher , who had taken in hand the reins his patron , gloomy as Hippolytus on the road to Mycenae , let fall , nothing could have surpassed the glum and glacial coldness of the meeting .