nearly two
o’clock
After all , he was not going to ask for anything ; he went under the pretext of renewing an affair in which Cerizet had taken part , and Cerizet never took part in anything unless he had a personal interest in it . The chances were , therefore , that he would be received with affectionate eagerness rather than unpleasant acerbity . Moreover , he decided to go and see the copying clerk at Dutocq 's office ; it would look , he thought , less like a visit than if he went to his den in the rue des Poules . It was nearly two o'clock when la Peyrade made his entrance into the precincts of the justice-of-peace of the 12th arrondissement . He crossed the first room , in which were a crowd of persons whom civil suits of one kind or another summoned before the magistrate . Without pausing in that waiting-room , la Peyrade pushed on to the office adjoining that of Dutocq . There he found Cerizet at a shabby desk of blackened wood , at which another clerk , then absent , occupied the opposite seat .