nine o'clock
The whole town had heard of his return , and there were scores of folk to remember him and bid him welcome . They would chase away this feeling of forlornness , of being an alien ... . Strange that , wide awake though he was , it should continue to haunt him ! But Troy , on all save market mornings , is a slug-a-bed town ; and even at nine o'clock , when he issued forth after an impatient breakfast , the streets wore an unkempt , unready , unsociable air . Housewives were still beating mats , shopboys washing down windows ; ash-buckets stood in the gutter-ways , by door and ope , awaiting the scavenger . `` These people want a Daylight Saving Bill , '' thought Captain Cai , and somewhat disconsolately wheeled about , setting his face for the Rope Walk . Here his spirits sensibly revived .