noon
said she . Doubtless , God did forgive her . But , taking the inward and outward history of the first half-day into consideration , Hepzibah began to fear that the shop would prove her ruin in a moral and religious point of view , without contributing very essentially towards even her temporal welfare . IV A Day Behind the Counter TOWARDS noon , Hepzibah saw an elderly gentleman , large and portly , and of remarkably dignified demeanor , passing slowly along on the opposite side of the white and dusty street . On coming within the shadow of the Pyncheon Elm , he stopt , and -LRB- taking off his hat , meanwhile , to wipe the perspiration from his brow -RRB- seemed to scrutinize , with especial interest , the dilapidated and rusty-visaged House of the Seven Gables . He himself , in a very different style , was as well worth looking at as the house . No better model need be sought , nor could have been found , of a very high order of respectability , which , by some indescribable magic , not merely expressed itself in his looks and gestures , but even governed the fashion of his garments , and rendered them all proper and essential to the man .