noon
`` You are the most wonderful man in the world , Clive , '' she murmured , her eyes fixed dreamily on his face . `` Always you have been making life delightful for me ; smoothing my path , helping me where the road is rough . '' ... She sighed : `` Clive , you are very wonderful to me . '' * * * * * Mrs. Jim Connor had come to help ; and now , at high noon , she sought them where they were standing in the garden , -- Athalie in ecstasy before the scented thickets of old-fashioned rockets massed in a long , broad border against a background of trees . So they went in to luncheon , which was more of a dinner ; and Mrs. Connor served them with apology , bustle , and not too garrulously for the humour they were in . High spirits had returned to them when they stepped out of doors ; and they came back to the house for luncheon in the gayest of humour , Athalie chattering away blithe as a linnet in a thorn bush , and Clive not a whit more reticent . `` Hafiz is going to adore this ! ''