noon
`` Listen , '' said I , beginning to tell them what you know already , `` here have we sailed twelve thousand miles at Ruth Bellenden 's order , and how does she receive us ? Why , with a nod she might give a neighbour going by in the street -- '' `` They not being on speaking terms except in church , '' put in Peter Bligh . `` Or she wishing him to get on with his business , '' said Mister Jacob , `` and not to gossip when there was work to do . '' `` Be that as it may , '' I ran on , `` the facts are as plain to me as eight bells for noon . Ruth Bellenden 's married to a foreigner who 's next door to a madman . Why , look at it -- what was the only word she had the time or the chance to say ? ` For God 's sake , come back , Jasper Begg , ' says she .