nearly noon
` Would you let her go to the poor-house ? ' Frank asked , but Dolly did not reply . As the breakfast-bell just then rang , no more was said of the little waif until the sleigh was brought to the door , and Frank announced his intention of stopping for the child on his way back from the station , where he was going to meet the coroner . It was nearly noon when Harold left Tracy Park the previous day and started for home , eager and anxious with regard to the child whom he claimed as his own . He had found her . She was his and he should keep her , he said to himself , and then he wondered how his grandmother had managed with her , and if she had cried for him or for her mother , and as he reached the house he stood still a moment , to listen . But the sounds which met his ear were peals of laughter , mingled with mild , and , as it would seem , unavailing expostulations from his grandmother .