noon
It might just as well have been me as Agnes . Only I 'd never have come back on purpose to kill _ her _ . Why ca n't I be left alone -- left alone and happy ? '' It was high noon when I first awoke : and the sun was low in the sky before I slept -- slept as the tortured criminal sleeps on his rack , too worn to feel further pain . Next day I could not leave my bed . Heatherlegh told me in the morning that he had received an answer from Mr. Mannering , and that , thanks to his -LRB- Heatherlegh 's -RRB- friendly offices , the story of my affliction had traveled through the length and breadth of Simla , where I was on all sides much pitied . `` And that 's rather more than you deserve , '' he concluded , pleasantly , `` though the Lord knows you 've been going through a pretty severe mill .