noon
And this is the result ! '' `` I 'll do my best , father . '' As he creaked out of the room , she shut her eyes tight and tried in despair to woo herself back to the moment of half-consciousness when Eric drew her cloak across her chest and she roused to ask him sleepily `` Am I coming undressed ? '' Barbara rang for tea at noon and came down to luncheon in a house which was gratifyingly demoralized by her absence . Her father had spent Sunday morning in his study , writing letters ; her mother had carried the more devout members of the party to mass and from mass to a vague , bored exploration of the garden , where they could be seen scattered on the lowest terrace , trying to make friends with an unresponsive peacock ; the men , headed by Pentyre , were warmly entrenched round the smoking-room fire in a blue tobacco-haze and a litter of Sunday papers . George Oakleigh , in naval uniform , was unashamedly sleeping in a deep window-embrasure , his mouth open and his eyeglasses on his knees . Deganway and Carstairs were arguing in subdued tones and seemed as vacantly uninterested as Pentyre , who had exhausted the _ feuilleton _ of his paper and was studying the advertisements .