noon
Nevertheless , he went out toward ten o'clock and traversed Paris , wandered up and down on the bridges and at the last moment felt an unconquerable desire to see Nana once more . With one word , perhaps , she would save him . And three o'clock was striking when he entered the house in the Avenue de Villiers . Toward noon a frightful piece of news had simply crushed Mme Hugon . Philippe had been in prison since the evening of the previous day , accused of having stolen twelve thousand francs from the chest of his regiment . For the last three months he had been withdrawing small sums therefrom in the hope of being able to repay them , while he had covered the deficit with false money . Thanks to the negligence of the administrative committee , this fraud had been constantly successful .