midday
Why it was to be kept secret , they failed to inquire ; the mystery was possibly not without its delights to them . Tears were shed again when the portrait had to be packed up and despatched . Rhoda lived on abashed by the adorable new refinement of Dahlia 's features , and her heart yearned to her uncle for so caring to decorate the lovely face . One day Rhoda was at her bed-room window , on the point of descending to encounter the daily dumpling , which was the principal and the unvarying item of the midday meal of the house , when she beheld a stranger trying to turn the handle of the iron gate . Her heart thumped . She divined correctly that it was her uncle . Dahlia had now been absent for very many months , and Rhoda 's growing fretfulness sprang the conviction in her mind that something closer than letters must soon be coming .