noon
As for the vicar , he developed what were for him a surprising number of new topics of conversation , and in the late afternoon took Elsmere a run up the fells to the nearest fragment of the Roman road which runs , with such magnificent disregard of the humors of Mother Earth , over the very top of High Street toward Penrith and Carlisle . Next day it looked as though after many waverings , the characteristic Westmoreland weather had descended upon them in good earnest . From early morn till late evening the valley was wrapped in damp clouds or moving rain , which swept down from the west through the great basin of the hills , and rolled along the course of the river , wrapping trees and fells and houses in the same misty , cheerless drizzle . Under the outward pall of rain , indeed , the valley was renewing its summer youth ; the river was swelling with an impetuous music through all its dwindled channels ; the crags flung out white waterfalls again , which the heat had almost dried away ; and by noon the whole green hollow was vocal with the sounds of water -- water flashing and foaming in the river , water leaping downward from the rocks , water dripping steadily from the larches and sycamores and the slate-eaves of the houses . Elsmere sat indoors reading up the history of the parish system of Surrey , or pretending to do so . He sat in a corner of the study , where he and the vicar protected each other against Mrs. Thornburgh . That good woman would open the door once and again in the morning and put her head through in search of prey ; but on being confronted with two studious men instead of one , each buried up to the ears in folios , she would give vent to an irritable cough and retire discomfited .