three o’clock
As he left the court-room , carrying one of those bundles of legal papers held together by a strip of cotton which , being too voluminous to hold under the arm , are carried by the hand and the forearm pressed against the chest , la Peyrade began to pace about the Salle des Pas perdus with that harassed look of business which denotes a lawyer overwhelmed with work . Whether he had really excited himself in pleading , or whether he was pretending to be exhausted to prove that his gown was not a dignity for show , as it was with many of his legal brethren , but an armor buckled on for the fight , it is certain that , handkerchief in hand , he was mopping his forehead as he walked , when , in the distance , he spied Thuillier , who had evidently just caught sight of him , and was beginning on his side to manoeuvre . La Peyrade was not surprised by the encounter . On leaving home he had told Madame Coffinet he was going to the Palais , and should be there till three o'clock , and she might send to him any persons who called on business . Not wishing to let Thuillier accost him too easily , he turned abruptly , as if some thought had changed his purpose , and went and seated himself on one of the benches which surround the walls of that great antechamber of Justice . There he undid his bundle , took out a paper , and buried himself in it with the air of a man who had not had time to examine in his study a case he was about to plead . It is not necessary to say that while doing this the Provencal was watching the manoeuvres of Thuillier out of the corner of his eye .