noon
In the gentle sadness of the season , Malcolm could not help looking back with envy to the time when labour , adventure , and danger , stormy winds and troubled waters , would have helped him to bear the weight of the moral atmosphere which now from morning to night oppressed him . Since their last conversation , Lady Florimel 's behaviour to him was altered . She hardly ever sent for him now , and when she did , gave her orders so distantly that at length , but for his grandfather 's sake , he could hardly have brought himself to remain in the house even until the return of his master who was from home , and contemplated proposing to him as soon as he came back , that he should leave his service and resume his former occupation , at least until the return of summer should render it fit to launch the cutter again . One day , a little after noon , Malcolm stepped from the house . The morning had broken gray and squally , with frequent sharp showers , and had grown into a gurly gusty day . Now and then the sun sent a dim yellow glint through the troubled atmosphere , but it was straightway swallowed up in the volumes of vapour seething and tumbling in the upper regions . As he crossed the threshold , there came a moaning wind from the west , and the water laden branches of the trees all went bending before it , shaking their burden of heavy drops on the ground .