eight o’clock in the
morning
A government office is , in short , a microcosm of society , with its oddities and hatreds , its envy and its cupidity , its determination to push on , no matter who goes under , its frivolous gossip which gives so many wounds , and its perpetual spying . At this moment the division of Monsieur de la Billardiere was in a state of unusual excitement , resulting very naturally from the event which was about to happen ; for heads of divisions do not die every day , and there is no insurance office where the chances of life and death are calculated with more sagacity than in a government bureau . Self-interest stifles all compassion , as it does in children , but the government service adds hypocrisy to boot . The clerks of the bureau Baudoyer arrived at eight o'clock in the morning , whereas those of the bureau Rabourdin seldom appeared till nine , -- a circumstance which did not prevent the work in the latter office from being more rapidly dispatched than that of the former . Dutocq had important reasons for coming early on this particular morning . The previous evening he had furtively entered the study where Sebastien was at work , and had seen him copying some papers for Rabourdin ; he concealed himself until he saw Sebastien leave the premises without taking any papers away with him . Certain , therefore , of finding the rather voluminous memorandum which he had seen , together with its copy , in some corner of the study , he searched through the boxes one after another until he finally came upon the fatal list .