noon
Isa had wept over the tiny shoe , and now John Dale picked the mate up reverently , and put it back where he knew Joyce always had kept it . Manlike he did not give himself blindly up to his misery . Life must go on somehow -- and while he sought a way out of the blackness that enshrouded him , he must prepare himself . He replenished the fire , and then when high noon flooded the living room with a pale glow , he set forth a meagre but nourishing meal . In the performing of these homely tasks he found a kind of comfort . It brought Joyce back to him in a sense . During the early afternoon hours he smoked and thought .