eleven o'clock
Then , having glanced at the corpse , Duroy started and exclaimed : `` Oh , his beard ! '' The beard had grown in a few hours on this decomposing flesh as much as it would have in several days on a living face . And they stood scared by this life continuing in death , as though in presence of some fearful prodigy , some supernatural threat of resurrection , one of these startling and abnormal events which upset and confound the mind . They both went and lay down until eleven o'clock . Then they placed Charles in his coffin , and at once felt relieved and soothed . They had sat down face to face at lunch with an aroused desire to speak of the livelier and more consolatory matters , to return to the things of life again , since they had done with the dead . Through the wide-open window the soft warmth of spring flowed in , bearing the perfumed breath of the bed of pinks in bloom before the door .