nine o'clock
The Hilarys always straggled down to breakfast as they chose . When Matt was at home , his mother and he were usually first ; then his father came , and Louise last . They took the _ Events _ , as many other people did , because with all its faults it was a thorough newspaper ; and they maintained their self-respect by taking the _ Abstract _ . The morning that the defalcation came out , Matt sent and got all the other papers , which he had glanced through and talked over with his mother before his father joined them at nine o'clock . Several of them had illustrations : likenesses of Northwick , and views of his house in Boston , and his house in Hatboro ' ; views of the company 's Mills at Ponkwasset ; views of the railroad wreck at Wellwater ; but it was Pinney 's masterpiece which really made Hilary sick . All the papers were atrocious , but that was loathsome . Yet there was really nothing more to blame in the attitude of the papers than in that of the directors , who gave the case to the detectives , and set the machinery of publicity at work .