noon
They 're very sorry that there is so much wickedness in the world , but since it is there , they enjoy the investigation of details , and it does n't matter very much whether they 're doing any good or not . '' `` There are n't any details to investigate , so far as Mary Mason is concerned . I took pains to make sure of that , when I heard that a big hulk of a machinist , who rooms on the same flat , was telling lies about her , just because she refused to have anything to say to him . '' When I was leaving the _ Echo _ office at noon one day I saw Henderson 's handsome black span , with the wreck of a sleigh behind them , come down the street at a full gallop , and I was just debating with myself whether my duty as a citizen , which called me to attempt to stop the brutes , was stronger than my duty to my wife and family , which bade me stay where I was , when a young lady jumped the snow ridge at the edge of the sidewalk and flung herself at the bit of the nearest horse . The powerful animal swung her right off her feet , but he was checked for an instant , and in that instant a young man seized the mate on the other side ; the team was stopped and surrounded by a crowd directly . Then I saw it was Mary Mason who was the heroine of the drama . She withdrew from the throng , straightened her flat hat above her rosy face , and walked off with her habitual indifferent air .