nine in the
morning
Lady Bruce 's health was dreadfully affected by the mental anguish through which she had passed , and it became a positive necessity that Bruce should work with his head or hands to earn their daily bread . He found no difficulty in procuring a temporary post in a lawyer 's office as a clerk . The drudgery was terrible . Daily , from nine in the morning to six in the evening , he found himself chained to the desk , and obliged to go through the dullest and most mechanical routine , the only respite being half an hour in the middle of the day , which he spent in dining at an eating-house . Nursed on the lap of luxury , habituated to the choicest viands , and accustomed to find every whim fulfilled , this kind of life was intolerable to him . The steaming recesses of a squalid eating-house gave him a sensation of loathing and sickness , and the want of exercise made him look haggard and wan . In vain he appealed to men who had called themselves his father 's friends ; he found to his cost that the son of a detected swindler has no friends , and more especially if his own life have been tainted with suspicion or dishonour .