ten o'clock
So might Eden have sighed , aware of its serpent . Next morning , almost before the sun was up , all Troy was in possession of the news ; and in Troy all that is personal has a public interest . It is this local spirit that marks off the Trojan from all other minds . In consequence long before ten o'clock struck , it was clear that some popular movement was afoot ; and by half-past eleven the road to the railway station was crowded with Trojans of all sorts and conditions -- boatmen , pilots , fishermen , sailors out of employ , the local photographer , men from the ship-building yards , makers of ship 's biscuit , of ropes , of sails , chandlers , block and pump manufacturers , loafers -- representatives , in short , of all the staple industries : women with baskets -- women with babies , women with both , even a few farmers in light gigs with their wives , or in carts with their families , a sprinkling from Penpoodle , across the harbour -- high and low , Church and Dissent , with children by the hundred . Some even proposed to ring the church bells and fire the cannon at the harbour 's mouth ; but the ringers and artillerymen preferred to come and see the sight . As it was , the `` George '' floated proudly from the church tower , and the Fife and Drum Temperance Band stood ready at the corner of East Street . All Troy , in fact , was on tip-toe .