noon
Her nature had been thwarted , her vanity wounded , her woman 's generosity cheated of self-sacrifice . Then , when she had raised all these questions , set vibrating all the springs in those different phases of being which we distinguish as social , moral , and physical , her energies were so far exhausted and relaxed that she was powerless to grasp a single thought amid the chase of conflicting ideas . Sometimes as the mists fell , she would throw her window open , and would stay there , motionless , breathing in unheedingly the damp earthly scent in the air , her mind to all appearance an unintelligent blank , for the ceaseless burden of sorrow humming in her brain left her deaf to earth 's harmonies and insensible to the delights of thought . One day , towards noon , when the sun shone out for a little , her maid came in without a summons . `` This is the fourth time that M. le Cure has come to see Mme. la Marquise ; to-day he is so determined about it , that we did not know what to tell him . '' `` He has come to ask for some money for the poor , no doubt ; take him twenty-five louis from me . '' The woman went only to return .