about noon
and then all the three got up to look at it , and all confessed that it was excellently done . `` And I am sure we are very much obliged to you , '' said Susan after a pause , remembering that she had not yet thanked him . `` Oh , it 's nothing , '' said he , not quite liking the word `` we . '' On the following day he returned from his work to Saratoga about noon . This he had never done before , and therefore no one expected that he would be seen in the house before the evening . On this occasion , however , he went straight thither , and as chance would have it , both the widow and her elder daughter were out . Susan was there alone in charge of the house .