noon
`` You 're restless . '' `` Ah , '' returned Chad as they parted , `` you 're exciting . '' He had , however , within two days , another separation to face . He had sent Maria Gostrey a word early , by hand , to ask if he might come to breakfast ; in consequence of which , at noon , she awaited him in the cool shade of her little Dutch-looking dining-room . This retreat was at the back of the house , with a view of a scrap of old garden that had been saved from modern ravage ; and though he had on more than one other occasion had his legs under its small and peculiarly polished table of hospitality , the place had never before struck him as so sacred to pleasant knowledge , to intimate charm , to antique order , to a neatness that was almost august . To sit there was , as he had told his hostess before , to see life reflected for the time in ideally kept pewter ; which was somehow becoming , improving to life , so that one 's eyes were held and comforted . Strether 's were comforted at all events now -- and the more that it was the last time -- with the charming effect , on the board bare of a cloth and proud of its perfect surface , of the small old crockery and old silver , matched by the more substantial pieces happily disposed about the room .