noon
But the walls were up , and the studding had already given skeleton shape to the interior . The floors were roughly boarded over , and the stairways were in place , with provisional treads rudely laid . They had not begun to lath and plaster yet , but the clean , fresh smell of the mortar in the walls mingling with the pungent fragrance of the pine shavings neutralised the Venetian odour that drew in over the water . It was pleasantly shady there , though for the matter of that the heat of the morning had all been washed out of the atmosphere by a tide of east wind setting in at noon , and the thrilling , delicious cool of a Boston summer afternoon bathed every nerve . The foreman went about with Mrs. Lapham , showing her where the doors were to be ; but Lapham soon tired of this , and having found a pine stick of perfect grain , he abandoned himself to the pleasure of whittling it in what was to be the reception-room , where he sat looking out on the street from what was to be the bay-window . Here he was presently joined by his girls , who , after locating their own room on the water side above the music-room , had no more wish to enter into details than their father . `` Come and take a seat in the bay-window , ladies , '' he called out to them , as they looked in at him through the ribs of the wall .