noon
`` She grows weaker in the body and stronger in the spirit with every successive hour , I think , '' replied Miss Cavendish . `` Well , my dear , I only wished to ask you that , and to tell you that I have had lunch laid in the little breakfast room , if Mr. Lytton would like any , '' said Mrs. Fanning , who now took equal share in all Emma 's housekeeping cares . But Alden , when appealed to , declined the lunch and hinted that they had better see to sending off the messengers to Beresford Manors and Lytton Lodge immediately . And that same noon the letters were dispatched . Alden Lytton had come down to Blue Cliffs for the purpose of confiding to Emma Cavendish the story of his first boyish passion for Mary Grey , and of the violent manner in which it was cured forever . But finding all the circumstances so opposite to what he expected to find them , he changed his purpose . He could not bring himself to add another item to the disturbing influences then surrounding Emma .