midday
She flushed . Etharedge stared at her . He was near despair . His dream of an artistic life on the Continent was as a bubble burst in the midday sunlight . He loved his wife , but the shock of her unheralded arrival , the hasty ill-news , proved too much for this patient man 's nerves . So he transposed his wrath to Locatéli . `` Well , I 'm damned ! ''