noon
They need not have lingered for they had sufficiently talked away all possible grounds of misunderstanding , even if they had not reconciled their disagreement . It occurred to her to suggest that they go back , but she dismissed the impulse with no more than a glancing thought . It was his burden , not hers , that remained to be shouldered at the cottage and it might be left to him to choose his own time for taking it up . Paula seldom came down much before noon anyhow . As for John Wollaston , he was very tired . Paula 's volcanic moments always exhausted him . He never could derationalize his emotions , cut himself free ; and while he felt just as intensely as she did , he had to carry the whole superstructure of himself along on those tempestuous voyages .