about one o’clock in the morning
Leon , the apprentice , was barely fifteen years of age . He was a slight , gentle looking lad , addicted to stealing stray slices of ham and bits of sausages . These he would conceal under his pillow , eating them during the night without any bread . Several times at about one o'clock in the morning Florent almost fancied that Leon was giving a supper-party ; for he heard low whispering followed by a sound of munching jaws and rustling paper . And then a rippling girlish laugh would break faintly on the deep silence of the sleeping house like the soft trilling of a flageolet . The other assistant , Auguste Landois , came from Troyes . Bloated with unhealthy fat , he had too large a head , and was already bald , although only twenty-eight years of age .