twelve
o’clock
I put in , as she hesitated a little . `` No ! kissing '' -- ONE morning , as Miss Matty and I sat at our work -- it was before twelve o'clock , and Miss Matty had not changed the cap with yellow ribbons that had been Miss Jenkyns 's best , and which Miss Matty was now wearing out in private , putting on the one made in imitation of Mrs Jamieson 's at all times when she expected to be seen -- Martha came up , and asked if Miss Betty Barker might speak to her mistress . Miss Matty assented , and quickly disappeared to change the yellow ribbons , while Miss Barker came upstairs ; but , as she had forgotten her spectacles , and was rather flurried by the unusual time of the visit , I was not surprised to see her return with one cap on the top of the other . She was quite unconscious of it herself , and looked at us , with bland satisfaction . Nor do I think Miss Barker perceived it ; for , putting aside the little circumstance that she was not so young as she had been , she was very much absorbed in her errand , which she delivered herself of with an oppressive modesty that found vent in endless apologies .