four o’clock in the afternoon
The scene suggested all the turmoil at the door of an electoral polling booth on the morrow of a riot . * This palace , for many years the home of the ` Salon , ' was built for the first Paris International Exhibition , that of 1855 , and demolished in connection with that of 1900 . -- ED . At four o'clock in the afternoon , when the voting was over , Claude could not resist a fit of curiosity to go and have a look . The staircase was now free , and whoever chose could enter . Upstairs , he came upon the huge gallery , overlooking the Champs Elysees , which was set aside for the hanging committee . A table , forty feet long , filled the centre of this gallery , and entire trees were burning in the monumental fireplace at one end of it .