noon
` And that is why I would not have you hasten . Our marriage may seem so strange to everybody , after my unlucky remark on that occasion we know so well , and which so many others know likewise , thanks to talebearers . ' On this representation he conceded a little space , for the sake of her good name . But the destined day of their marriage at last arrived , and it was a gay time for the villagers and all concerned , and the bells in the parish church rang from noon till night . Thus at last she was united to the man who had loved her the most tenderly of them all , who but for his reticence might perhaps have been the first to win her . Often did he say to himself ; ` How wondrous that her words should have been fulfilled ! Many a truth hath been spoken in jest , but never a more remarkable one ! '