noon
Evelyn 's anxiety was reserved exclusively for herself . She had sense enough to perceive that nothing could defer the day of reckoning much longer ; and on a certain afternoon in early December she exhumed her detested sheaf of bills and sat down at her bureau to a reconsideration of the hopelessness of things in general . A panel of winter sunshine , flung across the room from the verandah door , enveloped her in a glow of light and warmth . The drowsiness of an Indian noon brooded over the compound . Honor was out riding with Paul Wyndham ; Theo busy in the next room , and very unlikely to interrupt her , she reflected with a pang of regret . In an hour 's time she was going over to tea and tennis with the Kresneys ; and had decided that , after six months of silence , some mention must be made of a fixed scale of repayment , to begin with the New Year . But in that event , what hope of meeting any of those other demands , that were again being urgently brought to her notice ?