noon
All that night he sat by her bedside and held her hand . Far through the night and up to the early morning she kept waking from sleep and crying out as if in fear , till she was comforted by the consciousness that her husband was watching beside her . Breakfast was late the next morning , but during it Joshua received a telegram which required him to drive over to Withering , nearly twenty miles . He was loth to go ; but Mary would not hear of his remaining , and so before noon he drove off in his dog-cart alone . When he was gone Mary retired to her room . She did not appear at lunch , but when afternoon tea was served on the lawn under the great weeping willow , she came to join her guest . She was looking quite recovered from her illness of the evening before .