nine o’clock
She span round and fell all of a heap upon the tiled flooring . Her excessive suffering had taken all the blood from her heart , and , fainting away , she lay there , as if she were dead , like a white rag , miserable , done for , crushed beneath the fierce sovereignty of Art . Above her the nude woman rose radiant in her symbolic idol 's brightness ; painting triumphed , alone immortal and erect , even when mad . At nine o'clock on the Monday morning , when Sandoz , after the formalities and delay occasioned by the suicide , arrived in the Rue Tourlaque for the funeral , he found only a score of people on the footway . Despite his great grief , he had been running about for three days , compelled to attend to everything . At first , as Christine had been picked up half dead , he had been obliged to have her carried to the Hopital de Lariboisiere ; then he had gone from the municipal offices , to the undertaker 's and the church , paying everywhere , and full of indifference so far as that went , since the priests were willing to pray over that corpse with a black circle round its neck . Among the people who were waiting he as yet only perceived some neighbours , together with a few inquisitive folk ; while other people peered out of the house windows and whispered together , excited by the tragedy .