noon
It was noon . Master Peter could not come to table for a bad headache , and Cousin Maud scarce opened her lips . The sudden turn of matters had upset her balance , and so dazed her brain that she would answer at cross-purposes , and had ordered so many pats of butter from the farm wench as though she had cakes to bake for a whole convent full of sisters . Likewise a strange unrest kept her moving to and fro , and this was beginning to come upon me likewise , by reason that Ann came not , albeit in the morning she had promised to be here again at noon . I was about to make ready to seek her , when I was stopped , first by a message from the forest bidding me , albeit I had scarce left the lodge , to return thither no later than on the morrow ; and next by an unlooked-for guest , who had for long indeed been lost to sight . This was Lorenz Abenberger , the apothecary 's son , erewhile a companion of Herdegen in his youth , and he who , after he had beguiled the other pueri to dig for treasure , had been turned out of the school . Since those days , when likewise he had cast nativities for us maidens , and many a time amused us with his magic arts , we had no knowledge of him but that , after his parents ' death , he had ceased to ply the apothecary 's trade , and had given himself up to the study of Alchemy .