nine in
the morning
An escarpment of grass banks guards a hollow like a shallow crater on the very summit . They rode round it upon the rim , now facing the black slope of Charlton Forest across the valley to the north , now looking out over the plain and Chichester . Thirty miles away above the sea the chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight gleamed under their thatch of dark turf . It was not yet nine in the morning . Later the day would climb dustily to noon ; now it had the wonder and the stillness of great beginnings . A faint haze like a veil at the edges of the sky and a freshness of the air made the world magical to these two who rode high above weald and sea . Stella looked downwards to the silver flash of the broad water west of Chichester spire .