nine o'clock in the
morning
In the first day or two Jack was sustained not only by the original impulse , but by a real instinct in learning about business ways and details that were new to him . To talk about the business and about the markets , to hear plans unfolded for extension and for taking advantage of fluctuations in prices , was all very well ; but the drudgery of details -- copying , comparing invoices , and settling into the routine of a clerk 's life , even the life of a confidential clerk -- was contrary to the habits of his whole life . It was not to be expected that these habits would be overcome without a long struggle and many back-slidings . The little matter of being at his office desk at nine o'clock in the morning began to seem a hardship after the first three or four days . For Mr. Fletcher not to walk into his shop on the stroke of ten would have been such a reversal of his habits as to cause him as much annoyance as it caused Jack to be bound to a fixed hour . It was only the difference in training . But that is saying everything .