midday
It was not , this time , the old half-pay officers but a lower plane of the burgh 's manhood , the salvage and the wreckage of the wars , privatemen and sergeants , by a period of strife and travel made in some degree unfit for the tame ways of peace in a stagnant burgh . They told the old tales of the bivouac ; they sang its naughty or swaggering songs . By a plain deal door and some glasses of spirit they removed themselves from the dull town drowsing in the night , and in the light of the Sergeant More 's cruisie moved again in the sacked towns of Ciudad Rodrigo , Badajos and San Sebastian , gorged anew , perhaps , with blood and lust . Miss Mary and Gilian passed the door of the Sergeant More hurriedly , she deaf to its carousal , he remembering all at once and finding wake anew his first feelings when he stood in the same room before the half-pay officers at their midday drams . He had become a little tired of this quest all to gratify an old maid 's curiosity , he wished he could be home again and in his attic room with his candle and his story book , or his abundant and lively thoughts . But there was one other task before Miss Mary . She could not forbear so little as a glance at the exterior of the Sheriff 's dwelling where the enemies of her home -LRB- as so she now must fancy them -RRB- were trying to be happy without the company of the Campbells of Keils .