noon
If somebody is just before discovering time-travel , I think Security has a very substantial interest in it . '' The Prime Minister called back to confirm that First Citizen Yaggo and King Ranulf would be at the luncheon . The Chamberlain , Count Gadvan , called with a long and dreary problem about the protocol for the banquet . Finally , at noon , he flashed a signal for General Dorflay , waited five minutes , and then left his desk and went out , to find the mad general and his wirehaired soldiers drawn up in the hall . * * * * * There were more Thorans on the South Upper Terrace , and after a flurry of porting and presenting and ordering arms and hand-saluting , the Prime Minister advanced and escorted him to where the Bench of Counselors , all thirty of them , total age close to twenty-eight hundred years , were drawn up in a rough crescent behind the three distinguished guests . The King of Durendal wore a cloth-of-silver leotard and pink tights , and a belt of gold links on which he carried a jeweled dagger only slightly thicker than a knitting needle . He was slender and willowy , and he had large and soulful eyes , and the royal beautician must have worked on him for a couple of hours .