eight o'clock in the morning
`` I daresay I shall find it after all , Willie , and if not -- why , I must finish the old thing we 've been working at so long . But I once found a knife of mine after I had lost it a week in a hay-field ; so you see I 'm lucky . '' He kissed me again and went back to his bed , whilst I lay tossing and wakeful , full of shame and self-reproach , and yet more than ever built up in my determination that I would not , and could not , confess the whole truth ; it would be too great a shame and humiliation after having so fully committed myself , and when my parents had expressed such perfect confidence in my truthfulness . Half-past eight o'clock in the morning . The gong had sounded , and we had all assembled in the library for prayers . All but Aleck , who , for the first time since he had been with us at Braycombe , was not in his usual place . My father missed him , and turned to ask me where he was .