about
noon
For Herbert had wisely resolved that hard work , and hard work alone , could mitigate the misery of his present position . But he had no work for the present day . He could not at once unpack his portmanteau and begin his law studies on the moment . It was about noon when he had completed the former preparation , and eaten such breakfast as his new London landlady had gotten for him . And the breakfast had not of itself been bad , for Mrs. Whereas had been a daughter of Themis all her life , waiting upon scions of the law since first she had been able to run for a penn ` orth of milk . She had been laundress on a stairs for ten years , having married a law stationer 's apprentice , and now she owned the dingy house over the covered way , and let her own lodgings with her own furniture ; nor was she often without friends who would recommend her zeal and honesty , and make excuse for the imperiousness of her ways and the too great fluency of her by no means servile tongue . `` Oh , Mrs. -- , '' said Herbert .