noon
Love had been taken from her life ; the pride which would fain answer generosity with generosity -- that must go , too ! She felt no otherwise when the day came , and the bustle of the start and the common round of the journey put to flight the ideals of the night . But things fell out in a manner she had not pictured . They halted before noon on the north bank of the Loir , in a level meadow with lines of poplars running this way and that , and filling all the place with the soft shimmer of leaves . Blue succory , tiny mirrors of the summer sky , flecked the long grass , and the women picked bunches of them , or , Italian fashion , twined the blossoms in their hair . A road ran across the meadow to a ferry , but the ferryman , alarmed by the aspect of the party , had conveyed his boat to the other side and hidden himself . Presently Madame St. Lo espied the boat , clapped her hands and must have it .