noon
Now , it = f in a stage-coach in the depth of winter , when three passengers are warm and snug , a fourth , all besnowed and frozen , descends from the outside and takes place amongst them , straightway all the three passengers shift their places , uneasily pull up their cloak collars , re-arrange their `` comforters , '' feel indignantly a sensible loss of caloric : the intruder has at least made a sensation . But if you had all the snows of the Grampians in your heart , you might enter unnoticed ; take care not to tread on the toes of your opposite neighbor , and not a soul is disturbed , not a `` comforter '' stirs an inch . I had not slept a wink , I had not even lain down all that night , -- the night in which I had said farewell to Fanny Trevanion ; and the next morning , when the sun rose , I wandered out , -- where I know not : I have a dim recollection of long , gray , solitary streets ; of the river , that seemed flowing in dull , sullen silence , away , far away , into some invisible eternity ; trees and turf , and the gay voices of children . I must have gone from one end of the great Babel to the other ; for my memory only became clear and distinct when I knocked , somewhere before noon , at the door of my father 's house , and , passing heavily up the stairs , came into the drawing-room , which was the rendezvous of the little family ; for since we had been in London , my father had ceased to have his study apart , and contented himself with what he called `` a corner , '' -- a corner wide enough to contain two tables and a dumb-waiter , with chairs _ a discretion _ all littered with books . On the opposite side of this capacious corner sat my uncle , now nearly convalescent , and he was jotting down , in his stiff , military hand , certain figures in a little red account-book ; for you know already that my Uncle Roland was , in his expenses , the most methodical of men . My father 's face was more benign than usual , for before him lay a proof , -- the first proof of his first work -- his one work -- the Great Book ! Yes !