nine o'clock in the morning
Go and look for yourself some time , you can see with your own eyes . Once , one New Year 's Day , I saw a woman at a door . They had turned her out as a joke , to give her a taste of the frost because she had been crying so much , and they shut the door behind her . At nine o'clock in the morning she was already quite drunk , dishevelled , half-naked , covered with bruises , her face was powdered , but she had a black-eye , blood was trickling from her nose and her teeth ; some cabman had just given her a drubbing . She was sitting on the stone steps , a salt fish of some sort was in her hand ; she was crying , wailing something about her luck and beating with the fish on the steps , and cabmen and drunken soldiers were crowding in the doorway taunting her . You do n't believe that you will ever be like that ? I should be sorry to believe it , too , but how do you know ; maybe ten years , eight years ago that very woman with the salt fish came here fresh as a cherub , innocent , pure , knowing no evil , blushing at every word .