midday
He took off his hat , and we said the _ Angelus _ in silence together . I noticed the silver gathering over his ears , and the black hair was visibly thinning on the top . I watched him keenly for those few seconds . I did not know that those musical strains of the midday Angelus were his death-knell -- the ringing up of the great stage-manager , Death , for his _ volté subito _ -- his leap through the ring to eternity . FOOTNOTES : -LSB- Footnote 6 : In many places in Ireland the priest places the broad ends of the stole on the heads of the newly married couple . -RSB- There was a vast crowd assembled down where the extemporized pier jutted into the creek , and where the new fishing-boat , perfect in all her equipments , lolled and rolled on the heaving of the tide . Her high mast made an arc of a circle in the warm June air , as the soft , round wavelets lifted her ; and many was the comment made on her by those whose eyes had never rested but on the tarred canvas of the coracle .