noon
When he spent an hour in the office of the wholesale grocery house , he despatched a day 's work , but never for a second was his problem out of his head . He spent two hours with his lawyers planning the suit against the water company , pointing out new sources of evidence , and incidentally leaving a large check to pay for the work . But through it all Molly Brownwell 's good name was ever before him , and when he thought how twenty years before he had walked through another day planning , scheming , and contriving , all to produce the climax of calamity that was hovering over her to-day , he was sick and faint with horror and self-loathing . But as the day drew to its noon , Hendricks began to feel a persistent detachment from the world about him . It floated across his consciousness , like the shadow anchor of some cloud far above him . He began to watch the world go by . He seemed not to be a part of it .