noon
Hamage had disappeared . As I groped about , gathering up my belongings , and vaguely wondering what had become of my companion , he rushed into the car , and , grasping my hand , gave me an enthusiastic welcome . I opened my mouth to demand what sort of a joke this belated greeting might be intended for , but , on second thought , I concluded not to raise the point . The fact is , when I came to observe that the time was not noon , but late in the evening , and that the train was the one I had left home on , and that I had not even changed my seat in the car since then , it occurred to me that Hamage might not understand allusions to the forenoon we had spent together . Later that same evening , however , the consternation of my host and hostess at my frequent and violent explosions of apparently causeless hilarity left me no choice but to make a clean breast of my preposterous experience . The moral they drew from it was the charming one that , if I would but oftener come to see them , a railroad trip would not so upset my wits .