the midday sun
` Yes , quite alone , ' replied his uncle , adding , however , the next minute : ` Well , he has with him a niece whom he had to take in , a queer girl , a regular savage . But we must make haste . The whole place looks death-like . ' The house with its shutters closed seemed wrapped in slumber as it stood there in the midday sun , amidst the hum of the big flies that swarmed all up the ivy to the roof tiles . The sunlit ruin was steeped in happy quietude . When the doctor had opened the gate of the narrow garden , which was enclosed by a lofty quickset hedge , there , in the shadow cast by a wall , they found Jeanbernat , tall and erect , and calmly smoking his pipe , as in the deep silence he watched his vegetables grow . ` What , are you up then , you humbug ? '