seven in the
morning
`` I may have to write to you , or to come to you , perhaps , '' he said . `` It 's as well to be prepared for the contingency . '' After this Mr. Nowell sent out for a `` Railway Guide , '' in order to give his daughter all necessary information about the trains for Malsham . There was a tolerably fast train that left Waterloo at seven in the morning , and Marian decided upon going by that . She had to spend the evening alone with her father while Mrs. Mitchin kept watch in the dismal chamber upstairs . Mr. Nowell asked his daughter 's permission to light his cigar , and having obtained it , sat smoking moodily all the evening , staring into the fire , and very rarely addressing his companion , who had taken a Bible out of her travelling-bag , and was reading those solemn , chapters which best harmonised with her feelings at this moment ; thinking as she read of the time when her guardian and benefactor lay in his last calm rest , and she had vainly tried to find comfort in the same words , and had found herself staring blankly at the sacred page , with eyes that were dry and burning , and to which there came no merciful relief from tears . Her father glanced at her askance now and then from his arm-chair by the fire , as she sat by the little round table looking down at her book , the light of the candles shining full upon her pensive face .