The two women were a lady's maid travelling to Paris to rejoin her mistress, and the other a wet-nurse; the child was the latter's nursling, which she was taking back to its parents.
The mother and son in the coupe were people of position; the former, about forty years of age, still preserving traces of great beauty, the latter a boy between eleven and twelve.

The third place in the coupe was occupied by the conductor.
Breakfast was waiting, as usual, in the dining-room; one of those breakfasts which conductors, no doubt in collusion with the landlords, never give travellers the time to eat.

The woman and the nurse got out of the coach and went to a baker's shop nearby, where each bought a hot roll and a sausage, with which they went back to the coach, settling themselves quietly to breakfast, thus saving the cost, probably too great for their means, of a meal at the hotel.
The doctor, the watchmaker, the architect and the mother and son entered the inn, and, after warming themselves hastily at the large kitchen-fire, entered the dining-room and took seats at the table.
The mother contented herself with a cup of coffee with cream, and some fruit.

The boy, delighted to prove himself a man by his appetite at least, boldly attacked the viands.

The first few moments were, as usual, employed in satisfying hunger.