about eight
o'clock
The consequences of darkness in the country even now are to gather the members of a family together into one room , and to make them settle to some sedentary employment ; and it was much more the case at the period of my story , when candles were far dearer than they are at present , and when one was often made to suffice for a large family . The mother and daughter hardly spoke at all when they sat down at last . The cheerful click of the knitting-needles made a pleasant home-sound ; and in the occasional snatches of slumber that overcame her mother , Sylvia could hear the long-rushing boom of the waves , down below the rocks , for the Haytersbank gulley allowed the sullen roar to come up so far inland . It might have been about eight o'clock -- though from the monotonous course of the evening it seemed much later -- when Sylvia heard her father 's heavy step cranching down the pebbly path . More unusual , she heard his voice talking to some companion . Curious to see who it could be , with a lively instinctive advance towards any event which might break the monotony she had begun to find somewhat dull , she sprang up to open the door . Half a glance into the gray darkness outside made her suddenly timid , and she drew back behind the door as she opened it wide to admit her father and Kinraid .