the midday
sun
The people of the place , I found , knew little and had guessed less . Those whom I spoke to on the matter seemed surprised that an antiquarian -LRB- as I professed myself to be -RRB- should trouble about a village tragedy , of which they gave a very commonplace version , and , as you may imagine , I told nothing of what I knew . Most of my time was spent in the great wood that rises just above the village and climbs the hillside , and goes down to the river in the valley ; such another long lovely valley , Raymond , as that on which we looked one summer night , walking to and fro before your house . For many an hour I strayed through the maze of the forest , turning now to right and now to left , pacing slowly down long alleys of undergrowth , shadowy and chill , even under the midday sun , and halting beneath great oaks ; lying on the short turf of a clearing where the faint sweet scent of wild roses came to me on the wind and mixed with the heavy perfume of the elder , whose mingled odour is like the odour of the room of the dead , a vapour of incense and corruption . I stood at the edges of the wood , gazing at all the pomp and procession of the foxgloves towering amidst the bracken and shining red in the broad sunshine , and beyond them into deep thickets of close undergrowth where springs boil up from the rock and nourish the water-weeds , dank and evil . But in all my wanderings I avoided one part of the wood ; it was not till yesterday that I climbed to the summit of the hill , and stood upon the ancient Roman road that threads the highest ridge of the wood . Here they had walked , Helen and Rachel , along this quiet causeway , upon the pavement of green turf , shut in on either side by high banks of red earth , and tall hedges of shining beech , and here I followed in their steps , looking out , now and again , through partings in the boughs , and seeing on one side the sweep of the wood stretching far to right and left , and sinking into the broad level , and beyond , the yellow sea , and the land over the sea .