twelve o’clock
`` But -- '' `` But there is no help for it . You must stay . '' Next day Smilash obtained from his wife a promise that she would behave towards Agatha as if the letter had given no offence . Henrietta pleaded as movingly as she could for an immediate return to their domestic state , but he put her off with endearing speeches , promised nothing but eternal affection , and sent her back to London by the twelve o'clock express . Then his countenance changed ; he walked back to Lyvern , and thence to the chalet , like a man pursued by disgust and remorse . Later in the afternoon , to raise his spirits , he took his skates and went to Wickens 's pond , where , it being Saturday , he found the ice crowded with the Alton students and their half-holiday visitors . Fairholme , describing circles with his habitual air of compressed hardihood , stopped and stared with indignant surprise as Smilash lurched past him .