noon
If you please , Aunt Stanbury , I will go . '' Then , of course , there was a compromise . Dorothy did at last consent to remain in the Close , but only on condition that she should be forgiven for her sin in reference to Mr. Gibson , and be permitted to go on with her aunt 's cap . -LSB- Illustration -RSB- The night had been fine and warm , and it was now noon on a fine September day when the train from Paris reached St. Michael , on the route to Italy by Mont Cenis , -- as all the world knows St. Michael is , or was a year or two back , the end of railway travelling in that direction . At the time Mr. Fell 's grand project of carrying a line of rails over the top of the mountain was only in preparation , and the journey from St. Michael to Susa was still made by the diligences , -- those dear old continental coaches which are now nearly as extinct as our own , but which did not deserve death so fully as did our abominable vehicles . The coupé of a diligence , or better still , the banquette , was a luxurious mode of travelling as compared with anything that our coaches offered . There used indeed to be a certain halo of glory round the occupant of the box of a mail-coach .