noon
Signs of perturbation under the surface , suggestive of some hidden influence at work , were not wanting , as the time passed on . The one thing missing was the prophetic faculty that could read those signs aright at Windygates House . On the very day when Sir Patrick 's dextrous treatment of his sister-in-law had smoothed the way to the hastening of the marriage , an obstacle was raised to the new arrangement by no less a person than Blanche herself . She had sufficiently recovered , toward noon , to be able to receive Arnold in her own little sitting-room . It proved to be a very brief interview . A quarter of an hour later , Arnold appeared before Sir Patrick -- while the old gentleman was sunning himself in the garden -- with a face of blank despair . Blanche had indignantly declined even to think of such a thing as her marriage , at a time when she was heart-broken by the discovery that Anne had left her forever .