noon
`` Do you know , '' she explained , `` I was terribly scared , and I imagined I heard ghostly footsteps all around here , and when I reached home I was as pale as a ghost myself . '' `` It was a foolish thing to do , '' he said , `` and a silly promise for me to exact . '' `` I should have kept it just the same , '' was her answer , `` as long as I lived . '' At noon he rebuilt the little lattice table , and after the dainty dinner was disposed of , they gathered flowers , picked wintergreen , wove wreaths for each other 's hats and talked silly nothings for hours , and enjoyed it , too , as lovers will . Late in the afternoon , when tired of this , he arranged the carriage robe and cushions beside the rock and asked her to sit beside him . It was a preliminary to some serious utterance , she felt , for he at once remarked : `` Liddy , I 've something to tell you . '' She looked at him for a moment , while a smile crept into her face , and then said : `` Now , Charlie , if you have any more startling or painful things to tell me , do n't bring me up here first , or I shall always dread to come . ''