Captain Hagberd and Colebrook

'To-morrow' is by Joseph Conrad, a Pole who learned English only at twenty-one and became one of its great novelists, a master of atmosphere. His characters all suffer from isolation.

In the small seaport of Colebrook, old Captain Hagberd has built two cheap cottages. He lives in one, and lets the other to a blind old man, Josiah Carvil, and his daughter Bessie.

The town barber tells his story with mockery. Hagberd was a retired coasting skipper who first came to Colebrook in mourning, after receiving a hoax letter about his son Harry, who had run away to sea years before. He searched for Harry everywhere, then settled in Colebrook to wait.

He keeps promising that Harry will come back. At first it was 'next week'; then 'next month'. The barber expects him to say 'next year' soon, and thinks only a 'cure' can help him.

One day Hagberd suddenly began wearing a home-made suit of sailcloth, 'for the present', to save his good clothes for Harry's return. The town has long stopped listening, and treats him simply as an odd old miser.