twelve o’clock
`` Poor little thing , she is almost his widow , though she scarcely knows it , '' said Armine , coming down with his brother . They found Babie still in the same intent , transfixed , watching state ; but she let Armine draw her close to him , and listened as he told her , in a low tender voice of the talks he had had with Fordham , who had expressed to his young friend , as to no one else , his own feelings as to his state , and said much that he had spared others , who could not listen with that unrealising calmness that comes when sorrow , never yet experienced , is almost like a mere vision . And as Babie listened , the large soft tears began to fall , drop by drop , and the elder brother 's anxiety was lessened . He made them eat and drink for one another 's sake , and watched over them with a care that was almost parental , till at nearly half-past twelve o'clock the other three came home . They said Mrs. Evelyn had come fully prepared by the telegram , and under an inexplicable certitude which made it needless to speak the word to her . She was thankful that Marmaduke had been spared the protracted weeks of struggle in which his elder brothers ' lives had closed , and she said -- `` We knew each other too well to need last words . '' Indeed she was in the exalted state that often makes the earlier hours and days of bereavement the least distressing , and Sydney was absorbed in the care of her .