noon
`` I can not doubt , '' said the abbess , `` that ever since there was a Christian in the island , there have been angels of God at hand , to sanctify the evil which they were not commissioned to prevent . Violence is open to the day . Patience is hidden in the heart . Revenge has shouted his battle-cry at noon , while Forgiveness breathes her lowly prayer at midnight . Spirits from hell may have raged along our high roads ; but I trust that in the fiercest times , the very temper of Christ may have dwelt in a thousand homes , in a thousand nooks of our valleys and our woods . '' `` Besides , '' sister Benoite ventured to say , `` our worst troubles were so long ago ! For ten years now we have been under the holy rule of a devout man ; and , for the most part , at peace . ''