noon
Even as she looked into her own reflected eyes , the tears at last overflowed . It was half an hour later before Flavia , quiet , dignified and only betrayed by her absolute pallor , trusted herself to descend the stairs . The Rose house was too near the race course , too intimately concerned in the drama , for the information she sought not to be already rife gossip there . When Mr. Rose came home , near noon , he had little left to tell his daughter except Gerard 's condition and his defense of Corrie . `` Then Corrie did not hurt him , '' she grasped the exquisite relief . Mr. Rose shook his head , reluctantly discouraged and discouraging . He had not gone to the city during those intervening hours ; he never , then or afterward , spoke of where he had been or what he had felt .