noon
But in the meantime , how would Kate fare ? I knew that my sister would be greatly alarmed at my continued absence . She fully expected me to be home long before this . As near as I could judge it was now an hour or so after noon , and she would have dinner kept warm on the kitchen stove , expecting every minute to see me drive up the lane . Then again I was worried over the fact that the widow had left the house and her money in my charge . To be sure , the latter was locked up in her private secretary ; but I felt it to be as much in my care as if it had been placed in my shirt bosom or the bottom of my trunk . I concluded that it was my duty , then , to free myself as quickly as possible from the bonds which the members of the Model Club had placed upon me .