five o'clock in the morning
`` Certainly , '' I replied ; `` you will only discover , as I have , that the school was broken up a month ago , and Ellen Martineau has disappeared . '' I kept no very strict watch over her during the day , for I felt sure she would find no trace of Olivia in Noireau . At night I saw her again . She was worn out and despondent , and declared herself quite ready to return to Falaise by the omnibus at five o'clock in the morning . I saw her off , and gave the driver a fee , to bring me word for what town she took her ticket at the railway-station . When he returned in the evening , he told me he had himself bought her one for Honfleur , and started her fairly on her way home . As for myself , I had spent the day in making inquiries at the offices of the _ octrois _ -- those local custom-houses which stand at every entrance into a town or village in France , for the gathering of trifling , vexatious taxes upon articles of food and merchandise .