midday
Had he really felt like that about her ? `` Pah ! '' he said suddenly , and reverted to his books . But the tune and the memory had won their footing , they were with him through his meagre lunch of milk and scones -- he had resolved at the outset he would not go back to her for the midday meal -- and on his way to Vigours ' they insisted on attention . It may be that lunching on scone and milk does in itself make for milder ways of thinking . A sense of extraordinary contradiction , of infinite perplexity , came to him . `` But then , '' he asked , `` how the devil did we get to _ this _ ? ''