midday
The boy did not marvel at this . He would not have done so if the years had been sixty-one ; for Mr. Rolfe seemed to him an old man , very much older than his own father . As usual when at Greystone , Harvey took his first walk to the spots associated with his childhood . He walked alone , for Morton had gone to business until midday . On the outskirts of the town , in no very pleasant situation , stood the house where he was born ; new buildings had risen round about it , and the present tenants seemed to be undesirable people , who neglected the garden and were careless about their window curtains . Here he had lived until he was ten years old -- till the death of his father . His mother died long before that ; he just , and only just , remembered her .