noon
He had performed an act of duty ; made an exertion ; felt his own strength to do and deny , and was on better terms with himself . I am afraid the whole of the ensuing week tried his patience . It was Christmas week : we took to no settled employment , but spent it in a sort of merry domestic dissipation . The air of the moors , the freedom of home , the dawn of prosperity , acted on Diana and Mary 's spirits like some life-giving elixir : they were gay from morning till noon , and from noon till night . They could always talk ; and their discourse , witty , pithy , original , had such charms for me , that I preferred listening to , and sharing in it , to doing anything else . St. John did not rebuke our vivacity ; but he escaped from it : he was seldom in the house ; his parish was large , the population scattered , and he found daily business in visiting the sick and poor in its different districts . One morning at breakfast , Diana , after looking a little pensive for some minutes , asked him , `` If his plans were yet unchanged . ''