noon
But , unhappily , the parson being absent-minded , 't was into the dame 's deaf ear he spoke , and his humor became , in transmission , by pure misfortune , an evil charge . There was then no help for it , old wives being what they are : authorized by the gentle parson , depending upon the report of a dame of character , the tittle-tattle spread and settled like a mist , defiling Judith to the remotest coves of Twin Islands . And Judith was vanished ! I knew then , in the gray noon of that day , why the child had cried in that leafy nook of the Whisper Cove road that she could go nowhere . I cursed myself . `` Stop , Dannie ! '' cries my uncle .