midday
Yet so it was . Geoff 's absence was not discovered until two o'clock , when Lady Markland , at the end of a long and troublesome consultation over matters only partially understood , suggested luncheon to her man of business . `` Geoff will be waiting and very impatient , '' she said , with a smile . Mr. Longstaffe was not anxious to see Geoff , nor disturbed that the little boy 's midday meal should have been postponed to business , though this disturbed Geoff 's mother , who had been in the habit of thinking his comfort the rule of her life . She was much startled not to find him in the dining-room , and to hear that he had not come back . `` Not come back ! and it is two o'clock !