noon
Yet , my Son , I will keep them for you till you find a wife , if not Amada , then another . '' `` If not Amada , I shall never find a wife , '' I said bitterly , whereat she smiled . Then she left me to make ready before she slept a while . Work as we would noon had passed two hours , on the following day , before we were prepared to start , for there was much to do . Thus the house must be placed in charge of friends and the means of travel collected . Also a messenger came from Pharaoh praying me for his and Egypt 's sake to think again before I left them , and an answer sent that go I must , whither the holy Tanofir would know if at any time Pharaoh desired to learn . In reply to this came another messenger who brought me parting gifts from Pharaoh , a chain of honour , a title of higher nobility , a commission as his envoy to whatever land I wandered , and so forth , which I must acknowledge .