nine o'clock
His first waking thought on the morning after his arrival was to look for those statues , and when he saw them gleaming in the sun just as they used to do , there swept over him a feeling of youth and vigour such as he had never known before . Those twenty years in New Zealand were , after all , to go for nothing ; they were to be as though they had had no existence , and he was to be the young energetic man of twenty-five , able to enter into his son 's point of view , able to share his life and vitality , and , at the same time , to give him the benefit of his riper experience . Through his open window came the faint , distant beating of the sea ; a bird flew past him , a white flash of light ; some one was singing the refrain of a Cornish `` chanty '' -- the swing of the tune came up to him from the garden , and some of the words beat like little bells upon his brain , calling up endless memories of his boyhood . He looked at his watch and found that it was nine o'clock . He had no idea that it was so late ; he had asked to be called at seven , but he had slept so soundly that he had not heard his man enter with his shaving water ; it was quite cold now , and his razors were terribly blunt . He cut himself badly , a thing that he scarcely ever did . But it was really unfortunate , on this first morning when he had wanted everything to be at its best .