nine o'clock
She looked for no extraordinary thing , for no special favour to brighten their uniform occupations and simple pleasures . She had taken the first train she could , without considering the time of its arrival in St. Penfer . She told herself that there would be a certain amount of gossip about her return , and that it could not be avoided by either a public or private arrival . Still , she was glad when the sun set and the shadows of the night were stretched out -- glad that the moon was too young to give much light , and that it was quite nine o'clock when the St. Penfer station was reached . A few people were on the platform , but none of them were thinking of Mrs. Tresham , and the woman so simply dressed and veiled in black made no impression on anyone . She left her trunk in the baggage-room and went by the familiar road down the cliff-breast . It had been raining , of course , and the ground was heavy and wet ; but the sky was clear , and the half-moon made a half-twilight among the bare branches and shed a faint bar of light across the ocean .