ten o'clock
The new wine , if it does not break the old bottle , after fierce effervescence seethes and bubbles quietly . It was so in Mr. Stone 's old bottle , hour by hour and day by day , throughout the month . A pinker , robuster look came back to his cheeks ; his blue eyes , fixed on distance , had in them more light ; his knees regained their powers ; he bathed , and , all unknown to him , for he only saw the waters he cleaved with his ineffably slow stroke , Hilary and Martin , on alternate weeks , and keeping at a proper distance , for fear he should see them doing him a service , attended at that function in case Mr. Stone should again remain too long seated at the bottom of the Serpentine . Each morning after his cocoa and porridge he could be heard sweeping out his room with extraordinary vigour , and as ten o'clock came near anyone who listened would remark a sound of air escaping , as he moved up and down on his toes in preparation for the labours of the day . No letters , of course , nor any newspapers disturbed the supreme and perfect self-containment of this life devoted to Fraternity -- no letters , partly because he lacked a known address , partly because for years he had not answered them ; and with regard to newspapers , once a month he went to a Public Library , and could be seen with the last four numbers of two weekly reviews before him , making himself acquainted with the habits of those days , and moving his lips as though in prayer . At ten each morning anyone in the corridor outside his room was startled by the whirr of an alarum clock ; perfect silence followed ; then rose a sound of shuffling , whistling , rustling , broken by sharply muttered words ; soon from this turbid lake of sound the articulate , thin fluting of an old man 's voice streamed forth . This , alternating with the squeak of a quill pen , went on till the alarum clock once more went off .