eleven o'clock
He walked restlessly about the untenanted rooms , stopping strange noises in windows and doors by jamming splinters of wood into the casements and crevices , and pressing together the lead-work of the quarries where it had become loosened from the glass . It was one of those nights when cracks in the walls of old churches widen , when ancient stains on the ceilings of decayed manor houses are renewed and enlarged from the size of a man 's hand to an area of many feet . The little gate in the palings before his dwelling continually opened and clicked together again , but when he looked out eagerly nobody was there ; it was as if invisible shapes of the dead were passing in on their way to visit him . Between ten and eleven o'clock , finding that neither Fairway nor anybody else came to him , he retired to rest , and despite his anxieties soon fell asleep . His sleep , however , was not very sound , by reason of the expectancy he had given way to , and he was easily awakened by a knocking which began at the door about an hour after . Clym arose and looked out of the window . Rain was still falling heavily , the whole expanse of heath before him emitting a subdued hiss under the downpour .