About noon
Kitty doubted whether her voice would reach the courtyard , even if she raised it to its highest pitch . She tried it from the attic window , but it seemed to die away in the heights , and she could hardly hope that it had been heard by anyone either inside or outside the house . She was left alone for some time . About noon , as she was standing by her window , straining her eyes to discover some trace of a human being in the distance , whose attention she perhaps might catch if one could only be seen , she heard the door open and close again . She knew the footstep : it was neither that of the deaf girl nor of the man Stevens . It was Hugo Luttrell coming once more to plead his cause or lay his commands upon her . She turned round unwillingly and glanced at him with a faint hope that the night might have brought him to some change of purpose .