noon
His mind too was not only degraded , but broken by his habits of life ; a strange , idiotic folly , that made him love laughing at his own littleness , ran through his character . Houseman was young ; he might amend ; but Clarke had grey hairs and dim eyes ; was old in constitution , if not years ; and every thing in him was hopeless and confirmed ; the leprosy was in the system . Time , in this , has made Houseman what Clarke was then . `` One day , in passing through the street , though it was broad noon , I encountered Clarke in a state of intoxication , and talking to a crowd he had collected around him . I sought to pass in an opposite direction ; he would not suffer me ; he , whom I sickened to touch , to see , threw himself in my way , and affected gibe and insult , nay even threat . But when he came near , he shrank before the mere glance of my eye , and I passed on unheeding him . The insult galled me ; he had taunted my poverty , poverty was a favourite jest with him ; it galled me ; anger , revenge , no !