noon
His worst fears were realized : he had given an inch ; she had taken an ell . The crack in the shell of his privacy was widening alarmingly and peeping through , he shuddered at what he saw . Day after day the steamship _ Saluria _ sailed the most amiable of seas . So clear was the atmosphere at times that a glimpse could be had of the planet Venus disporting herself in the heavens at high noon . Life on shipboard became permeated with that spirit of fellowship which is apt to make itself felt the moment the restraints of convention are lifted . Even the Honorable Percival succumbed in a measure to the insidious charm of the long , lazy days that were punctuated only by the ship 's bells . He was still an apparently indifferent spectator of all that was going on , but the fact that he _ was _ a spectator showed that he was relaxing the rigid rules he had laid down for himself .