nine o’clock
When Bianchon and Eugene had satisfied their hunger , the rattle of spoons and forks , the boisterous conversation , the expressions on the faces that bespoke various degrees of want of feeling , gluttony , or indifference , everything about them made them shiver with loathing . They went out to find a priest to watch that night with the dead . It was necessary to measure their last pious cares by the scanty sum of money that remained . Before nine o'clock that evening the body was laid out on the bare sacking of the bedstead in the desolate room ; a lighted candle stood on either side , and the priest watched at the foot . Rastignac made inquiries of this latter as to the expenses of the funeral , and wrote to the Baron de Nucingen and the Comte de Restaud , entreating both gentlemen to authorize their man of business to defray the charges of laying their father-in-law in the grave . He sent Christophe with the letters ; then he went to bed , tired out , and slept . Next day Bianchon and Rastignac were obliged to take the certificate to the registrar themselves , and by twelve o'clock the formalities were completed .