noon
`` In Paradise , then ! I told thee it were far hence . '' `` Is Paradise far hence , Lady ? I once heard say Father Ademar that it were not over three hours ' journey at the most ; for the thief on the cross went there in one day , and it were high noon ere he set out . '' Maude stopped sooner than she intended , suddenly checked by a moan of pain from Custance . The mere mention of Ademar 's name seemed to evoke her overwhelming distress , as if it brought back the memory of all the miserable events over which she had been brooding for three days past . She rocked herself from side to side , as though her suffering were almost unendurable .