eight
o’clock
When he reached the rue Basse-Saint-Pierre , the porter told him that he did not know what had become of the father of the lady who had arrived that afternoon ; the orders of Monsieur Halpersohn were to admit no one to see her for the next eight days , under pain of putting her life in danger . This answer brought Auguste 's exasperation to a crisis . He returned to the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse , turning over in his mind the wildest and most extravagant plans of action . He reached home at half-past eight o'clock , half famished , and so exhausted with hunger and distress that he listened to Madame Vauthier when she asked him to share her supper , which happened to be a mutton stew with potatoes . The poor lad fell half dead upon a chair in that atrocious woman 's room . Persuaded by the wheedling and honeyed words of the old vulture , he replied to a few questions about Godefroid which she adroitly put to him , letting her discover that it was really her other lodger who was to pay his grandfather 's debts the next day , and also that it was to him they owed the improvement in their condition during the past week . The widow listened to these confidences with a dubious air , plying Auguste with several glasses of wine meantime .