noon
It took me a long time to decide just what to sign myself , just how to pilot my pen between the rocks of candor and dignity . So I ended up by signing it `` Chaddie '' and nothing more , for already the fires of emotion had cooled and a perplexed little reaction of indifferency had set in . It was only a surface-stir , but it was those surface-stirs , I remembered , which played such a lamentably important part in life . When Whinstane Sandy came in at noon for his dinner , a full quarter of an hour ahead of Peter , I had his meal all ready for him by the time he had watered and fed his team . I cut that meal short , in fact , by handing him my carefully sealed letter and telling him I wanted him to take it straight over to Casa Grande . I knew by his face as I helped him hitch Water-Light to the buckboard -- for Whinnie 's foot makes it hard for him to ride horseback -- that he nursed a pretty respectable inkling of the situation . He offered no comments , and he even seemed averse to having his eye meet mine , but he obviously knew what he knew .