nine o'clock in the morning
Only one year before this , when the struggling young lawyer depended upon his work for his bread , he could hardly get a paying client ; now that he was entirely independent of his profession , he was overwhelmed with business . As the wealthy master of the Black Valley manor , with its rich dependencies of farms , quarries , mills , and hamlets , he might have led the easy life of a country gentleman . But in Lyon Berners ' apprehension , work was duty ; and so to work he went , as if he had had to get his living by it . Every day he left home at nine o'clock in the morning , in order to be present at the opening of the court at ten . He reached home again at four in the afternoon , and dined with Sybil and Rosa . After dinner he retired to his study , and spent the evening in working up his briefs and preparing for the next day 's business . Thus he was entirely separated from his guest , who never saw him except at the table , with the breadth of the board between them , and almost entirely from his wife , who only had his company to herself at night .