noon
But , on the whole , we got on very well together , for , after the incident of our first meeting , Monsieur Leblanc was always polite to me . Marie he adored , as did every one about the place , from her father down to the meanest slave . Need I add that I adored her more than all of them put together , first with the love that some children have for each other , and afterwards , as we became adult , with that wider love by which it is at once transcended and made complete . Strange would it have been if this were not so , seeing that we spent nearly half of every week practically alone together , and that , from the first , Marie , whose nature was as open as the clear noon , never concealed her affection for me . True , it was a very discreet affection , almost sisterly , or even motherly , in its outward and visible aspects , as though she could never forget that extra half-inch of height or month or two of age . Moreover , from a child she was a woman , as an Irishman might say , for circumstances and character had shaped her thus . Not much more than a year before we met , her mother , whose only child she was , and whom she loved with all her strong and passionate heart , died after a lingering illness , leaving her in charge of her father and his house .