noon
I set down the fact merely and its share in Dorothea 's recovery . More than a year had passed when , one February morning , as he left the breakfast table , Endymion handed Dorothea a slip of paper . `` Do you think we can entertain at dinner next Wednesday ? If you can manage it , I wish these invitations written out and despatched before noon . '' `` Next Wednesday ? '' Dorothea 's eyebrows went up . Invitations to dine at Bayfield had always , as we know , been issued just three weeks ahead .