noon
It seemed to me that we talked of everything but love on that particular morning . There was , perhaps , a little more timidity and hesitancy on my part than I have commonly shown among our people at the boarding-house . In fact , I considered myself the master at the breakfast-table ; but , somehow , I could not command myself just then so well as usual . The truth is , I had secured a passage to Liverpool in the steamer which was to leave at noon , -- with the condition , however , of being released in case circumstances occurred to detain me . The schoolmistress knew nothing about all this , of course , as yet . It was on the Common that we were walking . The _ mall _ , or boulevard of our Common , you know , has various branches leading from it in different directions .