eleven
o’clock
Aunt Beryl had a nemeral in a ring , but it was a very small one . This one was as big as a star and far more beautiful . As the morning lengthened whole parties appeared over the sand-hills and came down on the beach to bathe . It was understood that at eleven o'clock the women and children of the summer colony had the sea to themselves . First the women undressed , pulled on their bathing dresses and covered their heads in hideous caps like sponge bags ; then the children were unbuttoned . The beach was strewn with little heaps of clothes and shoes ; the big summer hats , with stones on them to keep them from blowing away , looked like immense shells . It was strange that even the sea seemed to sound differently when all those leaping , laughing figures ran into the waves .