noon
For it came vaguely back that he , impulsive and unthinking , had spoken to her throughout in English . `` And anyhow , '' -- this came distinctly back , -- `` it was certainly in English that she thanked me . '' What passed for breakfast at the presbytery was the usual Continental evasion of that repast , -- bread and coffee , despatched in your apartment . But at noon the household met to dine . The dining-room , on the ground floor , long and low , with a vaulted ceiling , whitewashed , and a pavement of worn red tiles , was a clean , bare room , that -LRB- pervaded by a curious , dry , not unpleasant odour -RRB- seemed actually to smell of bareness , as well as of cleanliness . There was a table , there was a dresser , there were a few unpainted deal chairs , rush-bottomed -LRB- exactly like the chairs in the church , in all Italian churches -RRB- , and there was absolutely nothing else , save a great black and white Crucifix attached to the wall . But , by way of compensation , its windows opened southwards , flooding it with sunshine , and commanding the wonderful perspective of the valley , -- the blue-grey hills , the snow-peaks , the blossoming low-lands , and the far-away opalescence that you knew to be the lake .