twelve
o'clock
The difficulty was , he was apt to be altogether too energetic . There was a strange , inflamed , flurried , flighty recklessness of activity about him . He would be incautious in dipping his pen into his inkstand . All his blots upon my documents , were dropped there after twelve o'clock , meridian . Indeed , not only would he be reckless and sadly given to making blots in the afternoon , but some days he went further , and was rather noisy . At such times , too , his face flamed with augmented blazonry , as if cannel coal had been heaped on anthracite . He made an unpleasant racket with his chair ; spilled his sand-box ; in mending his pens , impatiently split them all to pieces , and threw them on the floor in a sudden passion ; stood up and leaned over his table , boxing his papers about in a most indecorous manner , very sad to behold in an elderly man like him .