noon
Then you will know if you shall write more , or give your attention to your wife and business . '' `` Write the letter , '' said David , `` I am sorry you did not speak of this sooner . '' At sunrise the next morning he was on the road to Dreux with the precious roll of poems under his arm . At noon he wiped the dust from his feet at the door of Monsieur Bril . That learned man broke the seal of M. Papineau 's letter , and sucked up its contents through his gleaming spectacles as the sun draws water . He took David inside to his study and sat him down upon a little island beat upon by a sea of books . Monsieur Bril had a conscience .