noon
No slave so tightly bound as the man who has what people call ` a stake in the country ' and a balance at his banker 's . The true monarch of all he surveys is the penniless reprobate who walks down Fleet-street with his whole estate covered by the seedy hat upon his head . '' Having thus moralized , I proceeded to ask Miss Halliday if she was prepared to accept a humbler station than that enjoyed by her at the Lawn . `` No useful landau , to be an open carriage at noon and a family coach at night , '' I said ; `` no nimble page to skip hither and thither at his fair lady 's commands , if not belated on the way by the excitement of tossing halfpence with youthful adventurers of the byways and alleys ; no trim parlour-maids , with irreproachable caps , dressed for the day at 11 o'clock A.M. -- but instead of these , a humble six-roomed bandbox of a house , and one poor hardworking slavey , with perennial smudges from saucepan-lids upon her honest pug-nose . Consider the prospect seriously , Charlotte , and ask yourself whether you can endure such a descent in the social scale . '' My Charlotte laughed , as if the prospect had been the most delightful picture ever presented to mortal vision . `` Do you think I care for the landau or the page ? ''