midday
The half-moon fell rayless and paler than the fan of fleeces pushed up Westward , high overhead , themselves dispersing on the blue in downy feathers , like the mottled grey of an eagle 's breast : the smaller of them bluish like traces of the beaked wood-pigeon . She looked above , then below on the slim and straightgrown flocks of naked purple crocuses in bud and blow abounding over the meadow that rolled to the level of the house , and two of these she gathered . Chillon was right in his forecast of the mists . An over-moistened earth steaming to the sun obscured it before the two had finished breakfast , which was a finish to everything eatable in the ravaged dwelling , with the exception of a sly store for the midday meal , that old Mariandl had stuffed into Chillon 's leather sack -- the fruit of secret begging on their behalf about the neighbourhood . He found the sack heavy and bulky as he slung it over his shoulders ; but she bade him make nothing of such a trifle till he had it inside him . ` And you that love tea so , my pretty one , so that you always laughed and sang after drinking a cup with your mother , ' she said to Carinthia , ` you will find one pinch of it in your bag at the end of the left-foot slipper , to remember your home by when you are out in the world . ' She crossed the strap of the bag on her mistress 's bosom , and was embraced by Carinthia and Chillon in turns , Carinthia telling her to dry her eyes , for that she would certainly come back and perhaps occupy the house one day or other .