About five o'clock in the afternoon
People came from remote villages to listen to him , and it was held a privilege among the humbler sort to view the ruin of Michael Tregenza and hark to the chaotic ravings of a mind overthrown . A fortnight and four days after the funeral of Joan Tregenza there blew a southwest wind over Newlyn , from out a gray sky , dotted with watery blots of darker gray . No added light marked the western horizon at sunset , but the short , dull day simply fell headlong into night ; and with darkness came the rain . About five o'clock in the afternoon , when the flicker and shine of many lamps in little shop windows brightened the tortuous streets , a man clad in tarpaulins , and carrying a big canvas bag on his back , passed rapidly through the village . He had come that day from London upon the paying off of his vessel ; and while he left his two chests at the railway station , he made shift to bring his sea-bag along himself ; and that because he was bound for the white cottage on the cliff , and the bag held many precious foreign concerns for Joan Tregenza . It had been impossible to communicate with the sailor ; and he did not write from London to tell any of his return , that their pleasure and surprise on his appearance might be the more complete . Now a greater shock than that in his power to give waited the man himself .