noon
When the sun would gild the crest of Olivet and the Mount of Offence with light sharper and more brilliant in that old land than in the West , she knew Amrah would come , first to the well , then to a stone midway the well and the foot of the hill on which she had her abode , and that the good servant would there deposit the food she carried in the basket , and fill the water-jar afresh for the day . Of her former plentitude of happiness , that brief visit was all that remained to the unfortunate . She could then ask about her son , and be told of his welfare , with such bits of news concerning him as the messenger could glean . Usually the information was meagre enough , yet comforting ; at times she heard he was at home ; then she would issue from her dreary cell at break of day , and sit till noon , and from noon to set of sun , a motionless figure draped in white , looking , statue-like , invariably to one point -- over the Temple to the spot under the rounded sky where the old house stood , dear in memory , and dearer because he was there . Nothing else was left her . Tirzah she counted of the dead ; and as for herself , she simply waited the end , knowing every hour of life was an hour of dying -- happily , of painless dying . The things of nature about the hill to keep her sensitive to the world 's attractions were wretchedly scant ; beasts and birds avoided the place as if they knew its history and present use ; every green thing perished in its first season ; the winds warred upon the shrubs and venturous grasses , leaving to drought such as they could not uproot .