ten o’clock
`` These ten months that I have been a journalist , they have always run short of copy at eight o'clock in the evening . '' Manuscript sent to the printer is spoken of as `` copy , '' doubtless because the writers are supposed to send in a fair copy of their work ; or possibly the word is ironically derived from the Latin word _ copia _ , for copy is invariably scarce . `` We always mean to have a few numbers ready in advance , a grand idea that will never be realized , '' continued Lousteau . `` It is ten o'clock , you see , and not a line has been written . I shall ask Vernou and Nathan for a score of epigrams on deputies , or on ` Chancellor Cruzoe , ' or on the Ministry , or on friends of ours if it needs must be . A man in this pass would slaughter his parent , just as a privateer will load his guns with silver pieces taken out of the booty sooner than perish . Write a brilliant article , and you will make brilliant progress in Finot 's estimation ; for Finot has a lively sense of benefits to come , and that sort of gratitude is better than any kind of pledge , pawntickets always excepted , for they invariably represent something solid . ''