nine o'clock
If only she could have commandeered a boat ! But that would have entailed a boatman , and Mademoiselle would have been scandalized at the bare suggestion . `` She would make me bathe in a coat and skirt and a hat if she could , '' reflected Chris , shaking the wet hair out of her eyes . It was still early , not nine o'clock . The sea lay calm and empty all about her . Was she really the only person in Valpré , she wondered , who cared for a morning dip ? She had swum some way from the little town , and now found herself nearing the point where the rocks jutted far out to the sea .