noon
`` Sha n't be sorry to miss thee for a while . Makes me feel so shy -- this cleanliness . '' So , promising to be back by nightfall , I went presently to saddle Molly : and following Joan 's directions and her warnings against quags and pitfalls , was soon riding south across the moor and well on my road to the House of Gleys . My way leading me by Braddock Down , I turned aside for a while to examine the ground of the late fight -LRB- tho ' by now little was to be seen but a piece of earthwork left unfinish 'd by the rebels , and the fresh mounds where the dead were laid -RRB- ; and so 't was high noon -- and a dull , cheerless day -- before the hills broke and let me have sight of the sea . Nor , till the noise of the surf was in my ears , did I mark the chimneys and naked grey walls of the house I was bound for . 'T was a gloomy , savage pile of granite , perch 'd at the extremity of a narrow neck of land , where every wind might sweep it , and the waves beat on three sides the cliff below . The tide was now at the full , almost , and the spray flying in my face , as we crossed the head of a small beach , forded a stream , and scrambled up the rough road to the entrance gate .