noon
` Here , Richie ' -- he pressed fresh violets on my nostrils -- ` you have had a morning visitor . Quick out of bed , and you will see the little fairy crossing the meadow . ' I leapt to the window in time to have in view the little Princess Ottilia , followed by her faithful gaunt groom , before she was lost in the shadow of the fir-trees . We started for England at noon , much against my secret wishes ; but my father would not afford the margravine time to repent of her violent language and injustice toward him . Reflection increased his indignation . Anything that went wrong on the first stages of the journey caused him to recapitulate her epithets and reply to them proudly . He confided to me in Cologne Cathedral that the entire course of his life was a grand plot , resembling an unfinished piece of architecture , which might , at a future day , prove the wonder of the world : and he had , therefore , packed two dozen of hoar old -LRB- uralt : he used comical German -RRB- Hock for a present to my grandfather Beltham , in the hope of its being found acceptable .