midnight
This done , she laid the table in the outer room for their breakfast at half-past six , saw that their school-books and satchels were in order , gave them each a little more unnecessary tucking-up and a kiss so soft it could not have waked a butterfly , and then returned to her chair before the fire where she resumed the mending of a pile of socks and shirts , blouses and stockings , to say nothing of other indescribable garments , that lay in a formidable heap upon the big round table . This was her nightly routine . Sometimes her husband joined her . Then they talked the children over until midnight , discussed expenses that threatened to swamp them , yet turned out each month ` just manageable somehow ' and finally made a cup of cocoa before retiring , she to her self-made bed upon the sofa , and he to his room in the carpenter 's house outside the village . But sometimes he did not come . He remained in the Pension to smoke and chat with the Russian and Armenian students , who attended daily lectures in the town , or else went over to his own quarters to work at the book he was engaged on at the moment . To-night he did not come .