about midday
`` Oh , heavens ! '' he muttered -- `` what a horrible tangle . It will drive me mad ! '' There could be no peace for him until he knew her to be safely home again , and his work suffered accordingly ; until , at about midday , he rang up Myra Duquesne , on the pretence of accepting her invitation to lunch on the morrow , and heard , with inexpressible relief , her voice replying to him . In the afternoon he was suddenly called upon to do a big `` royal '' matinée , and this necessitated a run to his chambers in order to change from Harris tweed into vicuna and cashmere . The usual stream of lawyers ' clerks and others poured under the archway leading to the court ; but in the far corner shaded by the tall plane tree , where the ascending steps and worn iron railing , the small panes of glass in the solicitor 's window on the ground floor and the general air of Dickens-like aloofness prevailed , one entered a sort of backwater . In the narrow hall-way , quiet reigned -- a quiet profound as though motor ` buses were not .