seven o’clock
Nicholas Barthes alone remained in the house and slept in a room on the first floor which Sophie had got ready for him . Pierre , unwilling to quit his brother , dozed off upon a sofa . And the little house relapsed into its deep quietude , the silence of solitude and winter , through which passed the melancholy quiver of the souvenirs of childhood . In the morning , as soon as it was seven o'clock , Pierre had to go for the newspapers . Guillaume had passed a bad night and intense fever had set in . Nevertheless , his brother was obliged to read him the articles on the explosion . There was an amazing medley of truths and inventions , of precise information lost amidst the most unexpected extravagance .