noon
`` Letters ! '' cried Gorgo , drawing away her hand . `` Well , you are a tardy messenger ! Our houses are within a stone 's throw , and yet in a whole day , from noon till noon , so old a friend could not find a few minutes to deliver the letters entrusted to him , or to call upon such near neighbors ... '' `` First there were my parents , '' interrupted the young soldier . `` And then the tyrant military duty , which kept me on the stretch from yesterday afternoon till an hour or two since . Romanus robbed me even of my sleep , and kept me in attendance till the morn had set . However , I lost but little by that , for I could not have closed my eyes till they had beheld you !