noon
It was Sunday ; and Clarissa had been nearly a week in Brussels -- a very quiet week , in which she had had nothing to do but worship her baby , and tremblingly await any attempt that might be made to wrest him from her . She lived in hourly fear of discovery , and was startled by every step on the staircase and fluttered by every sudden opening of a door , expecting to see Daniel Granger on the threshold . She went to church alone on this first Sunday morning . Austin was seldom visible before noon , dawdling away the bleaker morning hours smoking and reading in bed . Bessie had a world of domestic business on her hands , and the two boys to torment her while she attempted to get through it . So Clarissa went alone to St. Gudule . There were Protestant temples , no doubt , in the Belgian city wherein she might have worshipped ; but that solemn pile drew her to itself with a magnetic attraction .