noon
Nor am I base and avaricious ; for heaven is also my witness , that only at this moment I learn from you , father , that I may be destined to inherit property , and -- '' `` One word , my dear son . It is quite lately that I became informed of this circumstance , by the greatest chance in the world , '' said Father d'Aigrigny , interrupting Gabriel ; `` and that was thanks to some family papers which your adopted mother had given to her confessor , and which were entrusted to us when you entered our college . A little before your return from America , in arranging the archives of the Company , your file of papers fell into the hands of our father-attorney . It was examined , and we thus learned that one of your paternal ancestors , to whom the house in which we now are belonged , left a will which is to be opened to day at noon . Yesterday , we believed you one of us ; our statutes command that we should possess nothing of our own ; you had corroborated those statutes , by a donation in favor of the patrimony of the poor -- which we administer . It was no longer you , therefore , but the Company , which , in my person , presented itself as the inheritor in your place , furnished with your titles , which I have here ready in order . But now , my clear son , that you separate from us , you must present yourself in your own name .