noon
You tell him so from me . '' `` I bet ye forty dollars , '' cried the cap'n . The door clanged behind him and he was gone . Mariana had never heard him in such demented haste since the days when one squad of the boys besieged another in the schoolhouse , and Eben Hanscom was deputed to run for reinforcements of those that went home at noon . But she settled down there by the fire and held herself quiet until he should come . She seemed to have shut a gate behind her ; but whether she had opened another to lead into the unknown country where women are like their sisters , triumphant over things , she could not tell . At the moment she found herself in a little inclosure where everybody could see her and laugh at her , and she could not answer back .