noon
My Uncle Christian likewise filled his cup right diligently , and seeing him quaff it with such lusty good will I feared lest he should keep us all night at table , when the time was short for Ann and my brother to have any privy speech together . But that good man forgot not , even over the wine-jar , what might pleasure other folks ; and albeit it was hard for him to quit a merry drinking-bout he was the first to move away . We were alone by sundown . The Magister had been carried to bed and woke not till noon on the morrow . The plighted couple sat once more in the oriel where they had so often sat in happier days , and seeing them talking and fondling in the gathering dusk , meseemed for a while that that glad winter season had come again in which they had rejoiced in the springtide of their love . Thus the hours passed , and I was in the very act of enquiry whether it were not time to light the lamps , when we heard voices on the stairs , and Cousin Maud came in saying that Sir Franz had made his way into the house , and that he declared that his weal or woe , nay and his life lay in Herdegen 's hand , so that she had not the heart to refuse to suffer him to come in . Hereupon my brother started up in a rage , but the chamber door was opened , and with the maid , who brought the lamp in , the Bohemian crossed the threshold .