winter's noon
Rupert was very deep , there could be no doubt of that ; he was anxious enough to keep Adrian away from them all ; what would it be then when it came to a question of his marriage ? Tanty , with the delightful optimism that seventy years ' experience had failed to damp , here became confident of the approach of her younger nephew 's complete discomfiture , and in the cheering contemplation of that event chuckled so unctuously that Molly looked at her amazed . `` It is well for you , my dear , '' said the old lady , rising and wagging her head with an air of enigmatic resolution , `` that you have got an aunt . '' * * * * * Some two days later , René , sitting upon a ledge of the old Scarthey wall , in the spare sunshine which this still , winter 's noon shone pearl-like through a universal mist , busy mending a net , to the tune of a melancholy , inward whistle , heard up above the licking of the waves all around him and the whimper of the seagulls overhead , the beat of steady oars approaching from land side . Starting to his feet , the little man , in vague expectation , ran to a point of vantage from which to scan the tideway ; after a few seconds ' investigation he turned tail , dashed into the ruins , up the steps , and burst open the door of the sitting-room , calling upon his master with a scared expression of astonishment . Captain Jack , poring over a map , his pipe sticking rakishly out of one side of his mouth , looked up amused at the Frenchman 's evident excitement , while Adrian , who had been busy with the uppermost row of books upon his west wall , looked down from his ladder perch , with the pessimist 's constitutional expectation of evil growing upon his face . `` One comes in a boat , '' ejaculated René , `` and I thought I ought to warn his honour , if his honour will give himself the trouble to look out . ''