midday
Since , therefore , he had no particular destination he was easily persuaded to ride to Saxmundham with Mr. Lance , who , for his part , was most earnest for a companion . On the journey Lance gave further evidence of his fears . He had a trick of looking backwards whenever they came to a corner of the road -- an habitual trick , it seemed , acquired by a continued condition of fear . When they stopped at midday to eat at an ordinary , he inspected the guests through the chink at the hinges of the door before he would enter the room ; and this , too , he did as though it had long been natural to him . He kept a bridle in his mouth , however ; that little pile of grain upon the mantelshelf had somehow warned him into reticence , so that Mitchelbourne , had he not been addicted to his tobacco , would have learnt no more of the business and would have escaped the extraordinary peril which he was subsequently called upon to face . But he _ was _ addicted to his tobacco , and no sooner had he finished his supper that night at Saxmundham than he called for a pipe . The maidservant fetched a handful from a cupboard and spread them upon the table , and amongst them was one plainly of Barbary manufacture .