noon
-LRB- 2 -RRB- There was much in the affection that had sprung up between Julius Faber and Amy Lloyd which touched my heart and softened all its emotions . This man , unblessed , like myself , by conjugal and parental ties , had , in his solitary age , turned for solace to the love of a child , as I , in the pride of manhood , had turned to the love of woman . But his love was without fear , without jealousy , without trouble . My sunshine came to me in a fitful ray , through clouds that had gathered over my noon ; his sunshine covered all his landscape , hallowed and hallowing by the calm of declining day . And Amy was no common child . She had no exuberant imagination ; she was haunted by no whispers from Afar ; she was a creature fitted for the earth , -- to accept its duties and to gladden its cares . Her tender observation , fine and tranquil , was alive to all the important household trifles by which , at the earliest age , man 's allotted soother asserts her privilege to tend and to comfort .