Twelve o'clock
Yet her husband , before he went into the wine-business so disastrously , had been pasteur here . He had preached from this very church whose bells now rang out the mid-day hour . The spirit of her daughter , she firmly believed , still haunted the garden , the narrow passages , and the dilapidated little salon where the ivy trailed along the ceiling . Twelve o'clock , striking from the church-tower clock , and the voice of her sister from the kitchen window , then brought the Widow Jequier down the garden in a flying rush . The table was laid and the soup was almost ready . The people were coming in . She was late as usual ; there was no time to change .