about nine o'clock
While they ate , dipping their toast in the coffee , buttering and rebuttering it , they chattered as tirelessly as if they had been deprived of each other 's society and confidence for weeks . The morning was dark and foggy , and a coal fire slumbered in the grate , giving out a bitter , acrid smell . Against the windows the soft mist pressed , showing a yellow patch toward the southeast , where the sun would pierce it after a while . Malcolm Monroe came downstairs at about nine o'clock , and the girls gathered up their dishes and disappeared in the direction of the kitchen . Not that Ma would not , as usual , prepare their father 's toast and bacon with her own hands , and not that Lydia would not , as usual , serve it . The girls were not needed . But Pa always made it impossible for them to be idle and comfortable over their own meal .