eight o'clock
And the story that you told of the fever at Saintes is true . '' The great bell hanging inside the gates of Gemosac was silent for two days after the return of Juliette de Gemosac from her fever-stricken convent school , at Saintes . But on the third day , soon after nightfall , it rang once more , breaking suddenly in on the silence of the shadowy courts and gardens , bidding the frogs in the tank be still with a soft , clear voice , only compassed by the artificers who worked in days when silver was little accounted of in the forging of a bell . It was soon after eight o'clock , and darkness had not long covered the land and sent the workers home . There was no moon . Indeed , the summons to the gate , coming so soon after nightfall , seemed to suggest the arrival of a traveller , who had not deemed it expedient to pass through the winding streets of Gemosac by daylight . The castle lies on a height , sufficiently removed from the little town to temper the stir of its streets to a pleasant and unobtrusive evidence of neighbourhood .