nine o'clock
I knew it was Tardif who fried the fish which came in with my tea ; and , when the night closed in , it was he who trimmed the oil-lamp and brought it in , and drew the check curtains across the low casement , as if there were prying eyes to see me on the opposite bank . Then a deep , deep stillness crept over the solitary place -- a stillness strangely deeper than that even of the daytime . The wail of the sea-gulls died away , and the few busy cries of the farm-yard ceased ; the only sound that broke the silence was a muffled , hollow boom which came up the ravine from the sea . Before nine o'clock Tardif and his mother had gone up-stairs to their rooms in the thatch ; and I lay wearied but sleepless in my bed , listening to these dull , faint , ceaseless murmurs , as a child listens to the sound of the sea in a shell . Was it possible that it was I , myself , the Olivia who had been so loved and cherished in her girlhood , and so hated and tortured in later years , who was come to live under a fisherman 's roof , in an island , the name of which I barely knew four days ago ? I fell asleep at last , yet I awoke early ; but not so early that the other inmates of the cottage were not up , and about their day 's work . It was my wish to wait upon myself , and so diminish the cost of living with these secluded people ; but I found it was not to be so ; Tardif waited upon me assiduously , as well as his deaf mother .