noon
cried he ; pulling out his watch -- and stalking by long tip-toe strides through the room , down stairs he went ; and meeting the maid in the passage , I heard him say -- Betty , bring me a bumper of claret ; thy poor master , and this d -- d Belford , are enough to throw a Hercules into the vapours . Mowbray , after this , assuming himself in our friend 's library , which is , as thou knowest , chiefly classical and dramatical , found out a passage in Lee 's Oedipus , which he would needs have to be extremely apt ; and in he came full fraught with the notion of the courage it would give the dying man , and read it to him . 'T is poetical and pretty . This is it : When the sun sets , shadows that show 'd at noon But small , appear most long and terrible : So when we think fate hovers o'er our heads , Our apprehensions shoot beyond all bounds : Owls , ravens , crickets , seem the watch of death ; Nature 's worst vermin scare her godlike sons : Echoes , the very leavings of a voice , Grow babbling ghosts , and call us to our graves . Each mole-hill thought swells to a huge Olympus ; While we , fantastic dreamers , heave and puff , And sweat with our imagination 's weight . He expected praises for finding this out . But Belton turning his head from him , Ah , Dick !