nine o’clock
Alyosha came out of the town and walked across the fields to the monastery . Chapter IV . Cana Of Galilee It was very late , according to the monastery ideas , when Alyosha returned to the hermitage ; the door‐keeper let him in by a special entrance . It had struck nine o'clock -- the hour of rest and repose after a day of such agitation for all . Alyosha timidly opened the door and went into the elder 's cell where his coffin was now standing . There was no one in the cell but Father Païssy , reading the Gospel in solitude over the coffin , and the young novice Porfiry , who , exhausted by the previous night 's conversation and the disturbing incidents of the day , was sleeping the deep sound sleep of youth on the floor of the other room . Though Father Païssy heard Alyosha come in , he did not even look in his direction .