seven o’clock
`` I prefer the ` Petit Rocher de Cancale ' ; we can go into a private room and speak low . '' `` But suppose you are seen with Cerizet ? '' `` Well , then , let 's go to the ` Cheval Rouge , ' quai de la Tournelle . '' `` That 's best ; seven o'clock ; nobody will be there then . '' Dutocq advanced alone into the midst of that congress of beggars , and he heard his own name repeated from mouth to mouth , for he could hardly fail to encounter among them some jail-bird familiar with the judge 's office , just as Theodose was certain to have met a client . In these quarters the justice-of-peace is the supreme authority ; all legal contests stop short at his office , especially since the law was passed giving to those judges sovereign power in all cases of litigation involving not over one hundred and forty francs . A way was made for the judge 's clerk , who was not less feared than the judge himself .