five
in the morning
Monsieur Gravier , who had seen so much of the world , proposed setting seals on the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor . The ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of a door by means of two little flattened pills of wax , fixed so high up , or so low down , that the trick is never suspected . If the gallant comes out of his own door and opens the other , the broken hair tells the tale . When everybody was supposed to be asleep , the doctor , the journalist , the receiver of taxes , and Gatien came barefoot , like robbers , and silently fastened up the two doors , agreeing to come again at five in the morning to examine the state of the fastenings . Imagine their astonishment and Gatien 's delight when all four , candle in hand , and with hardly any clothes on , came to look at the hairs , and found them in perfect preservation on both doors . `` Is it the same wax ? '' asked Monsieur Gravier .