noon
In his earlier life he had served Lord Bromley in the Indian jungle during the famine ; had been second man at the country seat of the Duke of Valmoncourt at the time of the baccarat scandal , and later on had risen to the position of chief butler in the establishment of an unpopular Roumanian general . It is not to be wondered at , therefore , that he was at forty-five past master in domestic diplomacy , knowing to a detail the private history of more than a score of families , having studied them at his ease behind their chairs , or that he knew infinitely more of the world at large than did his master . Blakeman had two absorbing passions -- one was his love of shooting and the other his reverent adoration of Margaret , whom he had seen develop into womanhood , and who was his Madonna and good angel . At high noon , then , when the silver bell on Alice 's night table broke the stillness of her bedroom , her French maid , Annette , entered noiselessly and slid back the soft curtains screening the bay window . She , like Blakeman , had seen much . She was , too , more self-contained in many things than the woman she served , although she had been bred in Montmartre and born in the Rue Lepic . `` Did madame ring ? ''