ten o'clock in the morning
It was now and not till now that she saw Time before her as a thing from which all the known features had been deleted . `` Mademoiselle 's bath is quite ready . '' `` Mademoiselle , the first gong has sounded . '' Oh , the day -- the day with its hundred phases and divisions , the breakfast hour , the luncheon hour , the hour that brought afternoon tea , the dresses that went with each phase , the emotions and interests , and changing forms of being , the day which made a person change to its light and the person of ten o'clock in the morning quite different from the person of noon -- this thing which we talk of as the day appeared before her now as what it really is , life itself , as civilized men know life , a thing outside ourselves yet of ourselves and without which the circling of the sun is as the circling of a pointer on a blank dial -- . This thing was gone . La Touche had got more forward and was smoking and , though the wind was with them , a faint scent of tobacco smoke came on the spill of the wind from the sail . Bompard was chewing , spitting occasionally to starboard and wiping his mouth with the back of his bronzed tattooed hand .