noon
So that night Madame Dalibard visited in vain her niece 's chamber : Helen had a reprieve . The following morning was indeed eventful to the family at Laughton ; and as if conscious of what it brought forth , it rose dreary and sunless . One heavy mist covered all the landscape , and a raw , drizzling rain fell pattering through the yellow leaves . Madame Dalibard , pleading her infirmities , rarely left her room before noon , and Varney professed himself very irregular in his hours of rising ; the breakfast , therefore , afforded no social assembly to the family , but each took that meal in the solitude of his or her own chamber . Percival , in whom all habits partook of the healthfulness and simplicity of his character , rose habitually early , and that day , in spite of the weather , walked forth betimes to meet the person charged with the letters from the post . He had done so for the last three or four days , impatient to hear from his mother , and calculating that it was full time to receive the expected answer to his confession and his prayer . He met the messenger at the bottom of the park , not far from Guy 's Oak .