midday
In her perplexity Angélique tied knot upon knot hard as pebbles in her handkerchief . Those knots of her destiny , as she regarded them , she left untied , and they remain untied to this day -- a memento of her character and of those knots in her life which posterity has puzzled itself over to no purpose to explain . A short drive from the gate of St. John stood the old mansion of Belmont , the country-seat of the Bourgeois Philibert -- a stately park , the remains of the primeval forest of oak , maple , and pine ; trees of gigantic growth and ample shade surrounded the high-roofed , many-gabled house that stood on the heights of St. Foye overlooking the broad valley of the St. Charles . The bright river wound like a silver serpent through the flat meadows in the bottom of the valley , while the opposite slopes of alternate field and forest stretched away to the distant range of the Laurentian hills , whose pale blue summits mingled with the blue sky at midday or , wrapped in mist at morn and eve , were hardly distinguishable from the clouds behind them . The gardens and lawns of Belmont were stirring with gay company to-day in honor of the fête of Pierre Philibert upon his return home from the campaign in Acadia . Troops of ladies in costumes and toilettes of the latest Parisian fashion gladdened the eye with pictures of grace and beauty which Paris itself could not have surpassed . Gentlemen in full dress , in an age when dress was an essential part of a gentleman 's distinction , accompanied the ladies with the gallantry , vivacity , and politeness belonging to France , and to France alone .