noon
`` As you ask me for penance , I will give you two : one which will set right your ill-considered action ; the other which will help to remedy the cause of that action . `` The first is , that you place these fragments together and , taking a fresh piece of vellum , make a careful copy of this writing which you destroyed . `` The second is that , in order to regain the usual equipoise of your mental attitude , you ride to-day , for an hour , in the river meadow . My white palfrey , Iconoklastes , shall be in the courtyard at noon . Yesterday , my daughter , you rode for pleasure . To-day you will ride for penance ; and incidentally '' -- an irrepressible little smile crept round the corners of the Bishop 's mouth , and twinkled in his eyes -- `` incidentally , my daughter , you will work off a certain stiffness from which you must be suffering , after the unwonted exercise . Ah me ! ''