nine o’clock
Agafea Mihalovna 's allusion to the very subject he had only just been thinking about , hurt and stung him . Levin scowled , and without answering her , he sat down again to his work , repeating to himself all that he had been thinking of the real significance of that work . Only at intervals he listened in the stillness to the click of Agafea Mihalovna 's needles , and recollecting what he did not want to remember , he frowned again . At nine o'clock they heard the bell and the faint vibration of a carriage over the mud . `` Well , here 's visitors come to us , and you wo n't be dull , '' said Agafea Mihalovna , getting up and going to the door . But Levin overtook her . His work was not going well now , and he was glad of a visitor , whoever it might be .