twelve o'clock
Mr. Corbet used to leave his tutor and Mr. Wilkins and saunter into the library . There sat Ellinor and Miss Monro , each busy with their embroidery . He would bring a stool to Ellinor 's side , question and tease her , interest her , and they would become entirely absorbed in each other , Miss Monro 's sense of propriety being entirely set at rest by the consideration that Mr. Wilkins must know what he was about in allowing a young man to become thus intimate with his daughter , who , after all , was but a child . Mr. Corbet had lately fallen into the habit of walking up to Ford Bank for _ The Times _ every day , near twelve o'clock , and lounging about in the garden until one ; not exactly with either Ellinor or Miss Monro , but certainly far more at the beck and call of the one than of the other . Miss Monro used to think he would have been glad to stay and lunch at their early dinner , but she never gave the invitation , and he could not well stay without her expressed sanction . He told Ellinor all about his mother and sisters , and their ways of going on , and spoke of them and of his father as of people she was one day certain to know , and to know intimately ; and she did not question or doubt this view of things ; she simply acquiesced . He had some discussion with himself as to whether he should speak to her , and so secure her promise to be his before returning to Cambridge or not .