twelve o’clock
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 . Two hours went by , no word came from the Count nor from the Baron ; nobody appeared to act for them , and Rastignac had already been obliged to pay the priest . Sylvie asked ten francs for sewing the old man in his winding-sheet and making him ready for the grave , and Eugene and Bianchon calculated that they had scarcely sufficient to pay for the funeral , if nothing was forthcoming from the dead man 's family . So it was the medical student who laid him in a pauper 's coffin , despatched from Bianchon 's hospital , whence he obtained it at a cheaper rate .