noon
Early the next morning , his neighbor came to his door , very white , very hollow-eyed , evidently with a sleepless night back of her , and asked him for the papers he had read from . Jombatiste gave them to her in a tactful silence . She took them in one shaking hand , drawing her shawl around her wrinkled face with the other , and went back through the snow to her own house . By noon that day , everyone in the village was thrilling with wild surmise . Cousin Tryphena had gone over to Graham and Sanders ' , asked to use their long-distance telephone and had telephoned to Putnam to come and get her sideboard . After this strange act , she had passed Albert Graham , then by chance alone in the store , with so wild a mien that he had not ventured to make any inquiries . But he took pains to mention the matter , to everyone who happened to come in , that morning ; and , by dinner-time , every family in Hillsboro was discussing over its pie the possibility that the well-known _ queer streak _ , which had sent several of Cousin Tryphena 's ancestors to the asylum , was suddenly making its appearance in her .