nine o'clock
It was a foggy , misty , drizzly day the precursor of a long spell of dark and gloomy weather , that Claudia at length grew to fear would never come to an end . During this time the monotony of Claudia 's life at the castle was really dreadful . And this was something like it : She would wake about seven o'clock , but knowing that it was hours too early to rise in that house , she would lie and think until she was ready to go mad . At nine o'clock she would ring for her maid , Sally , and spend an hour in dawdling over her toilet . At ten she would go down to breakfast -- a miserable , uncomfortable meal of hollow civility or sullen silence . After breakfast she would go into the library and hunt among the old , musty , worm-eaten books for something readable , but without success . Then , ready to kill herself from weariness of life , she would wrap up in cloak and hood and climb the turret stairs and go out upon the ramparts of the castle and walk up and down with the drizzling mist above and around her and the thundering sea beneath her -- up and down -- hour after hour -- up and down -- lashing herself into such excitement that she would be tempted to throw herself from the battlements , to be crushed to death by the rocks or swallowed up by the waves below .