eight o'clock in the morning
He conducted his pupil to his class at once and presented him to the master . `` Here is a new day scholar , Monsieur Tavernier . You will find out how far advanced he is in reading and writing , if you please . '' M. Tavernier was a tall young man with a sallow complexion , a bachelor who , had he been living like his late father , a sergeant of the gendarmes , in a pretty house surrounded by apple trees and green grass , would not , perhaps , have had that ` papier-mache ' appearance , and would not have been dressed at eight o'clock in the morning in a black coat of the kind we see hanging in the Morgue . M. Tavernier received the newcomer with a sickly smile , which disappeared as soon as M. Batifol left the room . `` Go and take your place in that empty seat there , in the third row , '' said M. Tavernier , in an indifferent tone . He deigned , however , to conduct Amedee to the seat which he was to occupy .