seven o'clock
precisely
If Hester Thornton went to sleep that night under a sort of dreamy , hazy impression that school was a place without a great deal of order , with many kind and sympathizing faces , and with some not so agreeable ; if she went to sleep under the impression that she had dropped into a sort of medley , that she had found herself in a vast new world where certain personages exercised undoubtedly a strong moral influence , but where on the whole a number of other people did pretty much what they pleased -- she awoke in the morning to find her preconceived ideas scattered to the four winds . There was nothing of apparent liberty about the Lavender House arrangements in the early morning hours . In the first place , it seemed quite the middle of the night when Hester was awakened by a loud gong , which clanged through the house and caused her to sit up in bed in a considerable state of fright and perplexity . A moment or two later a neatly-dressed maid-servant came into the room with a can of hot water ; she lit a pair of candles on the mantel-piece , and , with the remark that the second gong would sound in half an hour , and that all the young ladies would be expected to assemble in the chapel at seven o'clock precisely , she left the room . Hester pulled her pretty little gold watch from under her pillow , and saw with a sigh that it was now half-past six . `` What odious hours they keep in this horrid place ! '' she said to herself .