nine
in the morning
The floor was covered with mud and snow , brought in by the clerks . Near the window stood the desk with a revolving lid , where the head clerk worked , and against the back of it was the second clerk 's table . The second clerk was at this moment in Court . It was between eight and nine in the morning . The only decoration of the office consisted in huge yellow posters , announcing seizures of real estate , sales , settlements under trust , final or interim judgments , -- all the glory of a lawyer 's office . Behind the head clerk was an enormous room , of which each division was crammed with bundles of papers with an infinite number of tickets hanging from them at the ends of red tape , which give a peculiar physiognomy to law papers . The lower rows were filled with cardboard boxes , yellow with use , on which might be read the names of the more important clients whose cases were juicily stewing at this present time .