noon
`` No , '' said he . `` He was well last night when I left him at the ranch . '' Last night ! He had come a hundred miles between dark of one day and noon of the next ! `` Your cousin takes a royal way of bringing home his bride -- by proxy , '' I said . `` Ah , but it 's partly my fault , you know '' -- he could not quell a sudden shamefaced laugh , -- `` if you 'd kindly allow me to explain . I shall have to be quite brutally frank ; but Mrs. Percifer said '' -- Here he lugged in a propitiatory compliment , which sounded no more like Mrs. Percifer than it fitted me ; but mistaking my smile of irony for one of encouragement , he babbled on .