nine o'clock
Then suddenly she had stood out from the midst of the sympathetic crowd -- remote , stern and wonderful -- and he had flung himself on her , knowing that whatever she might do to him , she loved him and that they belonged to one another , inextricably and for all time . So she stood on the threshold of his darkened room , and at that vision his adoration became an agony and he lay with his face hidden in his arms , waiting for the touch of her hand that never came , until he slept . Christine became his mother . Every morning at nine o'clock she turned the key of the pretentious mansion where James Stonehouse had set up practice for the twentieth time in his career , and called out , `` Hallo , Robert ! '' in her clear , cool voice , and Robert , standing at the top of the stairs in his night-shirt , called back , `` Hallo , Christine ! '' very joyously because he knew it annoyed Edith , his father 's new wife , listening jealously from behind her bedroom door . And then Christine scrubbed his ears , and sometimes , when there were no servants , a circumstance which coincided exactly with a periodical financial crisis , she scrubbed the floors .