noon
An exacting , arbitrary mind perhaps might evolve a set of resolutions that even the most intolerant would hesitate to violate , but for an easygoing , trouble-dodging brain like my own there is no such thing as tenacity of purpose , unless it be in the direction of an obfuscated tendency to maintain its own pitiful equilibrium . I try to keep an even ballast in my dome of thought and to steer straight through the sea of circumstance , a very difficult undertaking and sometimes hazardous . A man with a firm , resolute grip on himself would have checked Mr. Pless and Baron Umovitch at the outset of their campaign to acquire undisputed possession of _ all _ the comforts and conveniences that the castle afforded . He would have said no to their demands that all work about the place should be regulated according to their own life-long habits , which , among other things , included lying in bed till noon , going back to bed at three for a quiet nap , and staying up all night so that they might be adequately worn out by the time they went to bed in the first place . I mention this as a single instance of their power to over-ride me . It got to be so that when a carpenter wanted to drive a nail he had to substitute a screw and use a screw-driver , a noiseless process but an insufferable waste of time and money . Lathers worked four days on a job that should have been accomplished in as many hours .