about three o’clock
Something clutched strangely at his heart when he saw that it was impossible to reach Delphine . `` Sell some of your ornaments , '' he wrote hastily in the porter 's room , `` so that your father may be decently laid in his last resting-place . '' He sealed the note , and begged the porter to give it to Therese for her mistress ; but the man took it to the Baron de Nucingen , who flung the note into the fire . Eugene , having finished his errands , returned to the lodging-house about three o'clock . In spite of himself , the tears came into his eyes . The coffin , in its scanty covering of black cloth , was standing there on the pavement before the gate , on two chairs . A withered sprig of hyssop was soaking in the holy water bowl of silver-plated copper ; there was not a soul in the street , not a passer-by had stopped to sprinkle the coffin ; there was not even an attempt at a black drapery over the wicket .