noon precisely
None of these upsetting rumours , however , were allowed by Mr. Bascom and other gentlemen close to the Honourable Adam B. Hunt to reach that candidate , who continued to smoke in tranquillity on the porch of his home until the fifteenth day of August . At eight o'clock that morning the postman brought him a letter marked personal , the handwriting on which he recognized as belonging to the Honourable Hilary Vane . For some reason , as he read , the sensations of the Honourable Adam were disquieting ; the contents of the letter , to say the least , were peculiar . `` To-morrow , at noon precisely , I shall be driving along the Broad Brook road by the abandoned mill -- three miles towards Edmundton from Hull . I hope you will find it convenient to be there . '' These were the strange words the Honourable Hilary had written , and the Honourable Adam knew that it was an order . At that very instant Mr. Hunt had been reading in the Guardian the account of an overflow meeting in Newcastle , by his opponent , in which Mr. Crewe had made some particularly choice remarks about him ; and had been cheered to the echo .