noon
His haste to conclude the arrangements had , however , a very opposite tendency . The more yielding he became , the greater grew their exactions , and several times the treaty threatened to open hostilities again ; and at last it was full an hour after Jekyl 's departure that Grounsell escaped from durance , and was free to follow George Onslow to Pratolino . With his adventures in the interval the reader is sufficiently acquainted ; and we now come back to that moment where , bewildered and lost , he sat down upon the bench beside the high-road . It was already past noon when Grounsell reached Florence . He was delayed at the gate by the authorities examining a peasant 's cart in front of him , -- a process which appeared to take a most unusual degree of care and scrutiny , -- and thus gave the doctor another occasion for inveighing against the `` stupid ignorance of foreigners , who throw every possible impediment in the way of traffic and intercourse . '' `` What have they discovered now ? '' cried he , testily , as in a crowd of vehicles , of all sorts and sizes , he was jammed up like a coal-vessel in the river .