midday
Before reading or hearing anything he always had his irony in readiness , as a savage has his shield . It was an habitual irony , like some old liquor brewed years ago , and now it came into his face probably without any participation of his will , as it were by reflex action . But of that later . Soon after midday he took his portfolio , full of papers , and drove to his office . He dined away from home and returned after eight o'clock . I used to light the lamp and candles in his study , and he would sit down in a low chair with his legs stretched out on another chair , and , reclining in that position , would begin reading . Almost every day he brought in new books with him or received parcels of them from the shops , and there were heaps of books in three languages , to say nothing of Russian , which he had read and thrown away , in the corners of my room and under my bed .