noon
No , no , I wo n't leave it -- and you can suffer if you wish . And to think that I -- '' They were both laughing so that the maid 's face grew more serious , and she removed the teapot as though she were bearing some strange and poisonous creature to a deserved doom . As they sat opposite each other , smiling , a little flurried at finding themselves alone at table together , but eating with the appetites of very young lovers , the warm summer wind , blowing through the open windows , bore to their ears the songs of forest birds . It bore another sound , too ; Jack had heard it for the last two hours , or had imagined he heard it -- a low , monotonous vibration , now almost distinct , now lost , now again discernible , but too vague , too indefinite to be anything but that faint summer harmony which comes from distant breezes , distant movements , mingling with the stir of drowsy field insects , half torpid in the heat of noon . Still it was always there ; and now , turning his ear to the window , he laid down knife and fork to listen . `` I have also noticed it , '' said Lorraine , answering his unasked question . `` Do you hear it now ? ''