midday
Fan glanced wonderingly from one to the other , then dropped her eyes on her flowers . In a vague way she began to see that her new friends did not exist in happy harmony together , and it surprised and troubled her . The bright sunny look had gone from Miss Churton 's face , and the meal proceeded almost in silence to the end . And yet father , mother , and daughter all felt that there was an improvement in their relations , that the restraint caused by the presence of this shy , silent girl would make their morning and midday meetings at meal-time less a burden than they had hitherto been . To Miss Churton especially that triangle of three persons , each repelling and repelled by the two others , had often seemed almost intolerable . Husband and wife had long ceased to have one interest , one thought , one feeling in common ; while the old affection between mother and daughter had now so large an element of bitterness mingled with it that all its original sweetness seemed lost . As for her degenerate , weak-minded , tippling father , Miss Churton regarded him with studied indifference .