noon
For as a sceptic he was careless rather than militant ; ridiculing religion only in his own set , and when occasion arose , and then without fanaticism . For such piety as his mother 's he had even a tolerant respect ; and in any event had too much breeding to affront of set purpose the godly townsfolk of Port Nassau . At the first note of the bells he frowned and blamed himself for not having started earlier . But he had already made appointment by letter to meet the Surveyor and the Assistant Surveyor at noon on the headland , to measure out and discuss the site of the proposed fortification ; and he was a punctilious man in observing engagements . It may be asked how , if civil to other men 's scruples , he had come to make such an appointment for the Sabbath . He had answered this and -LRB- as he hoped -RRB- with suitable apologies in his letter to the surveyor , Mr. Wapshott : explaining that as His Majesty 's business was bringing him to Port Nassau , so it obliged him to be back at Boston by such-and-such a date . He was personally unacquainted with this Mr. Wapshott , who had omitted the courtesy of calling upon him at the Bowling Green , and whom by consequence he was inclined to set down as a person of defective manners .