noon
The silence that we feel in a house when some voice and step has gone out of it , which no one misses except we , and which we miss as we should miss the daylight or the sun . When all grew quiet , and Agatha sat in her own room -- expecting nothing , for she knew he would not come -- but still sitting , with her hair falling damp about her , and her eyes fixed on the mirror for company , yet half growing frightened as if it were a strange object on which she gazed -- then , indeed , there was silence -- then , indeed , she was _ alone _ . Mr. Harper did not ride home by midnight , as his wife was well assured he would not do , though with some idle hope put into her mind by Eulalie , she sat at the window until the stars whitened in the dawn . At noon -- which seemed to come slowly , every hour a day -- Mr. Dugdale appeared with a message , which by some wondrous good fortune he remembered to deliver -- that Nathanael had returned from Weymouth to Kingcombe , and was waiting there . Agatha gathered with difficulty that her husband wished her to return with Mr. Dugdale . `` I will not go . '' `` That 's right !