noon
He expressed his interest in Mrs. Milroy 's health in terms which would have been exaggerated on the lips of a friend of the family . He overflowed into a perfect flood of apologies for disturbing the major at his mechanical pursuits . He quoted Allan 's extravagant account of the clock , and expressed his own anxiety to see it in terms more extravagant still . He paraded his superficial book knowledge of the great clock at Strasbourg , with far-fetched jests on the extraordinary automaton figures which that clock puts in motion -- on the procession of the Twelve Apostles , which walks out under the dial at noon , and on the toy cock , which crows at St. Peter 's appearance -- and this before a man who had studied every wheel in that complex machinery , and who had passed whole years of his life in trying to imitate it . `` I hear you have outnumbered the Strasbourg apostles , and outcrowed the Strasbourg cock , '' he exclaimed , with the tone and manner of a friend habitually privileged to waive all ceremony ; `` and I am dying , absolutely dying , major , to see your wonderful clock ! '' Major Milroy had entered the room with his mind absorbed in his own mechanical contrivances as usual . But the sudden shock of Midwinter 's familiarity was violent enough to recall him instantly to himself , and to make him master again , for the time , of his social resources as a man of the world .