nine o'clock
But the book was in a shocking condition , without binding , and contained no more than a fragment . The last page was numbered `` 341 , '' and the first page + `` 129 . '' One hundred and twenty-eight pages , therefore , were certainly lost at the beginning , and I know not how many at the end ; but what was left was sufficiently engrossing to hold me standing by the window , until the wrinkled face of the priest looked in again to inform me that unless I wished to sleep in the library , I must be gone at once . On the following morning by nine o'clock I was there again ; and , after an interview with the Superior , went up again with the keys in my own possession , a quantity of foolscap and a fountain-pen in my hand , and sandwiches in my pocket , to the dusty little room beneath the roof . I repeated this series of actions , with the exception of the interview , every day for a fortnight , and when I returned to England in April I took with me a complete re-translation into English of the '' _ Vita et obitus Dni Ricardi Raynal Heremitae _ , '' and it is this re-translation that is now given to the public , with the correction of many words and the addition of notes , carried out during the last eighteen months . * * * * * It is necessary to give some account of the book itself , but I will not trouble my readers with an exhaustive survey of the reasons that have led me to my opinions on the subject : it is enough to say that most of them are to be found in the text . It is the story of the life of one of that large body of English hermits who flourished from about the beginning of the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth ; and was written , apparently for the sake of the villagers , by his parish-priest , Sir John Chaldfield , who seems to have been an amiable , devout , and wordy man , who long outlived his spiritual son .