eight o’clock
They , with his cooperation , established a sort of superior cafe , to which with some pride they gave the name of the Culinary Club . By assuring to each one a minimum of sixteen meals for seven francs , they kept for four years an excellent table , at which were to be found all the distinguished tourists in Rome . The year 1870 had disbanded that little society of connoisseurs and of conversationalists , and the club was metamorphosed into a restaurant , almost unknown , except to a few artists or diplomats who were attracted by the ancient splendors of the place , and , above all , by the knowledge of the `` doctor 's '' talents . It was not unusual at eight o'clock for the three small rooms which composed the establishment to be full of men in white cravats , white waistcoats and evening coats . To cosmopolitan Dorsenne this was a singularly interesting sight ; a member of the English embassy here , of the Russian embassy farther on , two German attaches elsewhere , two French secretaries near at hand from St. Siege , another from the Quirinal . What interested the novelist still more was the conversation of the doctor himself , genial Brancadori , who could neither read nor write . But he had preserved a faithful remembrance of all his old customers , and when he felt confidential , standing erect upon the threshold of his kitchen , of the possession of which he was so insolently proud , he repeated curious stories of Rome in the days of his youth .