four o'clock
This plan I put into execution , and with remarkable ingenuity too . While Theodore was busy clearing up the debris of our luncheon , I not only gave him the slip , but as I went out I took the precaution of locking the outer door after me , and taking the key away in my pocket . I thus made sure that Theodore could not follow me . I then walked to Passy -- a matter of two kilometres -- and by four o'clock I had the satisfaction of stowing the papers safely away under one of the tiles in the flooring of my room , and then pulling the strip of carpet in front of my bed snugly over the hiding-place . Theodore 's attic , where he slept , was at the top of the house , whilst my room was on the ground floor , and so I felt that I could now go back quite comfortably to my office in the hope that more remunerative work and more lavish clients would come my way before nightfall . It was a little after five o'clock when I once more turned the key in the outer door of my rooms in the Rue Daunou . Theodore did not seem in the least to resent having been locked in for two hours .