About ten o’clock
The poor lad fell half dead upon a chair in that atrocious woman 's room . Persuaded by the wheedling and honeyed words of the old vulture , he replied to a few questions about Godefroid which she adroitly put to him , letting her discover that it was really her other lodger who was to pay his grandfather 's debts the next day , and also that it was to him they owed the improvement in their condition during the past week . The widow listened to these confidences with a dubious air , plying Auguste with several glasses of wine meantime . About ten o'clock a cab stopped before the house , and Madame Vauthier looking out exclaimed : -- `` Oh ! it is Monsieur Godefroid . '' Auguste at once took the key of his apartment and went up to meet the protector of his family ; but he found Godefroid 's face and manner so changed that he hesitated to address him until , generous lad that he was , the thought of his grandfather 's danger came over him and gave him courage . The cause of this change and of the sternness in Godefroid 's face was an event which had just taken place in the rue Chanoinesse .