midnight
His very first researches made him aware of frightful errors in the memoirs of _ The Archer of Charles IX . _ When the library closed , he went back to his damp , chilly room to correct his work , cutting out whole chapters and piecing it together anew . And after dining at Flicoteaux 's , he went down to the Passage du Commerce to see the newspapers at Blosse 's reading-room , as well as new books and magazines and poetry , so as to keep himself informed of the movements of the day . And when , towards midnight , he returned to his wretched lodgings , he had used neither fuel nor candle-light . His reading in those days made such an enormous change in his ideas , that he revised the volume of flower-sonnets , his beloved _ Marguerites _ , working them over to such purpose , that scarce a hundred lines of the original verses were allowed to stand . So in the beginning Lucien led the honest , innocent life of the country lad who never leaves the Latin Quarter ; devoting himself wholly to his work , with thoughts of the future always before him ; who finds Flicoteaux 's ordinary luxurious after the simple home-fare ; and strolls for recreation along the alleys of the Luxembourg , the blood surging back to his heart as he gives timid side glances to the pretty women . But this could not last .