seven in the evening
When these managers were young men they were obliged to employ an assistant ; for , according to law , the offices had to be kept open till midnight ; moreover , the reports required by the minister of finance involved considerable writing . The Comtesse de Bauvan , to whom the Abbe Loraux explained the circumstances of the widow Bridau , promised , in case her manager should leave , to give the place to Agathe ; meantime she stipulated that the widow should be taken as assistant , and receive a salary of six hundred francs . Poor Agathe , who was obliged to be at the office by ten in the morning , had scarcely time to get her dinner . She returned to her work at seven in the evening , remaining there till midnight . Joseph never , for two years , failed to fetch his mother at night , and bring her back to the rue Mazarin ; and often he went to take her to dinner ; his friends frequently saw him leave the opera or some brilliant salon to be punctually at midnight at the office in the rue Vivienne . Agathe soon acquired the monotonous regularity of life which becomes a stay and a support to those who have endured the shock of violent sorrows . In the morning , after doing up her room , in which there were no longer cats and little birds , she prepared the breakfast at her own fire and carried it into the studio , where she ate it with her son .