about half past twelve
The first wish of her heart was to improve her acquaintance with Miss Tilney , and almost her first resolution , to seek her for that purpose , in the pump-room at noon . In the pump-room , one so newly arrived in Bath must be met with , and that building she had already found so favourable for the discovery of female excellence , and the completion of female intimacy , so admirably adapted for secret discourses and unlimited confidence , that she was most reasonably encouraged to expect another friend from within its walls . Her plan for the morning thus settled , she sat quietly down to her book after breakfast , resolving to remain in the same place and the same employment till the clock struck one ; and from habitude very little incommoded by the remarks and ejaculations of Mrs. Allen , whose vacancy of mind and incapacity for thinking were such , that as she never talked a great deal , so she could never be entirely silent ; and , therefore , while she sat at her work , if she lost her needle or broke her thread , if she heard a carriage in the street , or saw a speck upon her gown , she must observe it aloud , whether there were anyone at leisure to answer her or not . At about half past twelve , a remarkably loud rap drew her in haste to the window , and scarcely had she time to inform Catherine of there being two open carriages at the door , in the first only a servant , her brother driving Miss Thorpe in the second , before John Thorpe came running upstairs , calling out , `` Well , Miss Morland , here I am . Have you been waiting long ? We could not come before ; the old devil of a coachmaker was such an eternity finding out a thing fit to be got into , and now it is ten thousand to one but they break down before we are out of the street . How do you do , Mrs. Allen ?