Eight o’clock
she has left her duster , too , lying on the manuscript of my essay . Is it an omen , a presage of that dust which awaits my still unfinished work ? Who can fathom Dame Fortune 's ironic humor ? Eight o'clock ... . Counsellor Mouillard has finished his pleadings and must be sitting down to a game of whist with Counsellors Horlet and Hublette , of the Court of Bourges . They wait for me to make up the four . Perish the awful prospect !