twelve
o'clock
But somehow he always felt a passion behind it , whispering to him to put some nastiness into his blows , especially when Honoria came to look on . And yet he liked George far better than he liked Honoria . Indeed , he adored George , and the Monday , Wednesday , and Friday mornings when George appeared were the bright spots in his week . Lessons were over at twelve o'clock ; by one o'clock Taffy had to be home for dinner . Loneliness filled the afternoons , but the child peopled them with extravagant fancies . He and George were crusaders sworn to defend the Holy Sepulchre , and bound by an oath of brotherhood , though George was a Red Cross Knight and he a plain squire ; and after the most surprising adventures Taffy received the barbed and poisoned arrow intended for his master , and died most impressively , with George and Honoria , and Richard Coeur de Lion , and most of the characters from `` Ivanhoe , '' sobbing round his bed . There was a Blondel variant too , with George imprisoned in a high tower ; and a monstrous conglomerate tale in which most of the heroes of history and romance played second fiddle to George , whose pre-eminence , though occasionally challenged by Achilles , Sir Lancelot , or the Black Prince , was regularly vindicated by Taffy 's timely help .