five in the
morning
He could not look by any means delighted with the excellence of the arrangements , grant it though he might ; and he was hurried on to the vast kitchens , their ranges of coppers full of savoury steaming contents , and their racks of loaves looking all that was substantial and wholesome ; but his eyes were wandering after the figures engaged in cooking , to whom he was told such work was a reward ; he was trying to judge how far they could still enjoy life ; but he turned from their stolid low stamp of face with a sigh , thinking how little their condition could tell him of that of a cultivated nature . He was shown the chapel , unfortunately serving likewise for a schoolroom ; the centre space fitted for the officials and their families , the rest with plain wooden benches . But it was not an hour for schooling , and he went restlessly on to the library , to gather all the consolation he could from seeing that the privation did not extend to that of sound and interesting literature . He had yet to see the court , where the prisoners were mustered at half-past five in the morning , thence to be marched off in their various companies to work . He stood on the terrace from which the officials marshalled them , and he was called on to look at the wide and magnificent view of sea and land ; but all he would observe to Hector was , ` That boy 's throat has always been tender since the fever . ' He was next conducted to the great court , the quarry of the stones of the present St. Paul 's , and where the depression of the surface since work began there , was marked by the present height of what had become a steep conical edifice , surmounted by a sort of watch-tower . There he grew quite restive , and hearing a proposal of taking him to the Verne Hill works half a mile off , he declared that Hector was welcome to go ; he should wait for his boy .