noon
You holler ` nough , do you ? Now , then , let that learn you ! '' And so the imaginary flogging was finished to his satisfaction . Tom fled home at noon . His conscience could not endure any more of Amy 's grateful happiness , and his jealousy could bear no more of the other distress . Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred , but as the minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer , her triumph began to cloud and she lost interest ; gravity and absentmindedness followed , and then melancholy ; two or three times she pricked up her ear at a footstep , but it was a false hope ; no Tom came . At last she grew entirely miserable and wished she had n't carried it so far .