noon
`` I have marked it well , '' said the thegn , `` when I have gone that way , with a heap of queer stones , on a little hillock , which they say the witches or the Britons heaped together . '' `` The same . When Harold leaves London , I trow well towards that house will his road wend ; for there lives Edith the swan 's - neck , with her awful grandam the Wicca . If thou art there a little after noon , depend on it thou wilt see Harold riding that way . '' `` Thank thee heartily , friend Godrith , '' said Vebba , taking his leave , `` and forgive my bluntness if I laughed at thy cropped head , for I see thou art as good a Saxon as e'er a franklin of Kent -- and so the saints keep thee . '' Vebba then strode briskly over the bridge ; and Godrith , animated by the wine he had drunk , turned gaily on his heel to look amongst the crowded tables for some chance friend with whom to while away an hour or so at the games of hazard then in vogue . Scarce had he turned , when the two listeners , who , having paid their reckoning , had moved under shade of one of the arcades , dropped into a boat which they had summoned to the margin by a noiseless signal , and were rowed over the water .