midday
She did not wish to think , because her thoughts were so very contradictory . It was easier to try and follow some one else 's ideas . She found that almost worse than thinking , but , being very tenacious , she stuck to it and tried to read . At the midday meal they exchanged commonplaces , and neither looked at the other . Just as they left the dining-room a heavy thunderstorm broke overhead with a deluge of rain . Clare said that the thunder made her head ache , and she disappeared on pretence of lying down . Mrs. Bowring went to write letters , and Johnstone hung about the reading-room , and smoked a pipe in the long corridor , till he was sick of the sound of his own footsteps .