noon
So it was decided ; and the charioteer , already somewhat mollified , turned aside his horse to the right . John , meanwhile , sat collapsed , his chin sunk upon his chest , his mind in abeyance . The smell of the cab was still faintly present to his senses , and a certain leaden chill about his feet , all else had disappeared in one vast oppression of calamity and physical faintness . It was drawing on to noon -- two-and-twenty hours since he had broken bread ; in the interval , he had suffered tortures of sorrow and alarm , and been partly tipsy ; and though it was impossible to say he slept , yet when the cab stopped and the cabman thrust his head into the window , his attention had to be recalled from depths of vacancy . ` If you 'll no ' _ stand _ me a dram , ' said the driver , with a well-merited severity of tone and manner , ` I dare say ye 'll have no objection to my taking one mysel ' ? ' ` Yes -- no -- do what you like , ' returned John ; and then , as he watched his tormentor mount the stairs and enter the whisky-shop , there floated into his mind a sense as of something long ago familiar . At that he started fully awake , and stared at the shop-fronts .