nine o'clock
They had lived with more or less well-to-do families in the lower middle class -- people who could not have inherited refinement , and had not acquired any , neither proletarians nor gentlefolk , consumed with a disease of vulgar pretentiousness , inflated with the miasma of democracy . It would have been but a natural result of such a life if the sisters had commented upon it in a spirit somewhat akin to that of their employers ; but they spoke without rancour , without scandalmongering . They knew themselves superior to the women who had grudgingly paid them , and often smiled at recollections which would have moved the servile mind to venomous abuse . At nine o'clock they took a cup of cocoa and a biscuit , and half an hour later they went to bed . Lamp oil was costly ; and indeed they felt glad to say as early as possible that another day had gone by . Their hour of rising was eight . Mrs. Conisbee provided hot water for their breakfast .