noon
Stephen Lorimer was too intensely and healthily interested in the world he was living in to indulge in pallid curiosity about the one beyond , but now his mind entertained a brief wonder ... did he know , that long dead father of Honor Carmody , about this glorious girl of his ? Did he see her now , setting forth on this quest ; this pilgrimage to her True Love , as frankly and freely as she would have gone to nurse him in sickness ? He grinned and gave himself a shake as he went back to the machine , -- he had lost too much sleep lately . He would turn in for a nap before luncheon ; Mildred would not be out of her Madame 's deft hands until noon . The family of Menéndez y García beamed upon Honor with shy cordiality . Señor Menéndez was a dapper little gentleman , got up with exquisite care from the perfect flower on his lapel to his small cloth-topped patent leather shoes , but his wife was older and larger and had a tiny , stern mustache which made her seem the more male and dominant figure of the two . Mariquita , the girl , was all father , and she had been a year in a Los Angeles convent .