eight o’clock
I came here to look after the estate , and here I have grown old -- an old fogey , in fact . You are very welcome , '' he went on , evidently restraining his voice so as not to speak too loud ; he was going upstairs with his guests . `` I have no wife , she 's dead . But here , I will introduce my daughters , '' and turning round , he shouted down the stairs in a voice of thunder : `` Tell Ignat to have the sledge ready at eight o'clock to-morrow morning . '' His four daughters , young and pretty girls , all wearing gray dresses and with their hair done up in the same style , and their cousin , also young and attractive , with her children , were in the drawing-room . Startchenko , who knew them already , began at once begging them to sing something , and two of the young ladies spent a long time declaring they could not sing and that they had no music ; then the cousin sat down to the piano , and with trembling voices , they sang a duet from `` The Queen of Spades . '' Again `` Un Petit Verre de Clicquot '' was played , and the children skipped about , beating time with their feet .