eight o'clock
As the hurrying waves rolled nearer and nearer to the stately mansion , the sleeper saw a pale , starry face looking out of the silvery foam , and knew that it was my lady , transformed into a mermaid , beckoning his uncle to destruction . Beyond that rising sea great masses of cloud , blacker than the blackest ink , more dense than the darkest night , lowered upon the dreamer 's eye ; but as he looked at the dismal horizon the storm-clouds slowly parted , and from a narrow rent in the darkness a ray of light streamed out upon the hideous waves , which slowly , very slowly , receded , leaving the old mansion safe and firmly rooted on the shore . Robert awoke with the memory of this dream in his mind , and a sensation of physical relief , as if some heavy weight , which had oppressed him all the night , had been lifted from his breast . He fell asleep again , and did not awake until the broad winter sunlight shone upon the window-blind , and the shrill voice of the chambermaid at his door announced that it was half-past eight o'clock . At a quarter-before ten he had left Victoria Hotel , and was making his way along the lonely platform in front of a row of shadowless houses that faced the sea . This row of hard , uncompromising , square-built habitations stretched away to the little harbor , in which two or three merchant vessels and a couple of colliers were anchored . Beyond the harbor there loomed , gray and cold upon the wintry horizon , a dismal barrack , parted from the Wildernsea houses by a narrow creek , spanned by an iron drawbridge .