After dinner, Godeschal and Oscar returned to the office and worked till night.

Once a month Oscar went to breakfast with his uncle Cardot, and he spent the Sundays with his mother.

From time to time Moreau, when he came to the office about his own affairs, would take Oscar to dine in the Palais-Royal, and to some theatre in the evening.
Oscar had been so snubbed by Godeschal and by Desroches for his attempts at elegance that he no longer gave a thought to his clothes.
"A good clerk," Godeschal told him, "should have two black coats, one new, one old, a pair of black trousers, black stockings, and shoes.
Boots cost too much.

You can't have boots till you are called to the bar.

A clerk should never spend more than seven hundred francs a year.
Good stout shirts of strong linen are what you want.