about eight o'clock
Yet it took him some time to realize that these nightly gatherings at Storch 's were composed of real flesh and blood . At first he was content to lie in a drowse and listen to the incoherent babblings of these nocturnal visitors , but , as he grew stronger , detached bits of conversation began to impress themselves upon him . These people had each some pet grievance and it remained for Storch to pick upon the strings of their discontents with unerring accuracy . At about eight o'clock every night the first stragglers would drift in , reinforced by a steady stream , until midnight saw a room stuffed with sweating humanity releasing their emotions in a biting flood of protests . They protested at everything under the sun -- at custom , at order , at work , at play , at love , at life itself . And Storch , for the most part silent , would sit with folded arms , puffing at his pipe , a suggestion of genial malice on his face , throwing out a phrase here and there that set the pack about him leaping like hungry dogs to the lure of food . In confused moments Fred Starratt fell to wondering whether he really had escaped from Fairview , whether the forms about him were not the same motley assembly that used to gather in the open and exchange whines .