eight o'clock in the morning
Then , in a few hours , she vanished again , and returned within a couple of weeks . It seemed as if she were borne along in life in wide circles . Nikolay , always occupied , lived a monotonous , methodical existence . At eight o'clock in the morning he drank tea , read the newspapers , and recounted the news to the mother . He repeated the speeches of the merchants in the Douma without malice , and clearly depicted the life in the city . Listening to him the mother saw with transparent clearness the mechanism of this life pitilessly grinding the people in the millstones of money . At nine o'clock he went off to the office .