noon
They held the profession of music to be an unworthy one , and threw up their hands in dismay at the number of young people here complacently devoting themselves to such a frivolous object . It was necessary for Dove to prove to them that a student of music might yet be a man of untarnished principles and blame less honour . And he did not find the task a hard one ; the whole bent of his mind was towards sobriety . He frequented the American church with his new friends on Sunday after noon ; gave up skating on that day ; went with the old gentleman to Motets and Passions ; and eschewed the opera . But now , his ambition had been insidiously roused , and day by day it grew stronger . If only the affair with Maurice had not been of so unsavoury a nature ! Did he , Dove , become seriously involved , it might be difficult to prove to judges so severe as his future parents-in-law , that he had acted out of pure goodness of heart .