noon
She guessed , drearily , that Owen would feel bound , in humanity , to institute a search for his missing wife ; but by a fortunate chance she had been able to cover her tracks and disappear effectually ; and as the weeks glided by , and discovery was apparently as far off as ever , she began to feel , with a miserable certainty , that in time her husband would relinquish the search , and settle down to forget the frivolous , uneducated girl who had not known how to appreciate the honour he had done her in making her his wife . To-day , this glorious spring day when the violet-scented air held a hint of summer 's warmth in its breath , Toni was making holiday . Her employer was from home , called to London by the hint of a wonderful book sale to be held there the following week ; and Toni 's time was her own for nearly eight days . She had started early that morning on a pilgrimage to the little village where , long ago , she had passed the first happy years of her life ; and had arrived , before noon , to find , as she had half-expected , that none of her old friends remained to give her welcome . Old Fiammetta was dead , as was , of course , the kindly Padre who had befriended Roger Gibbs when the young widower had decided to stay on , with his little daughter , in the home which his Antonia had made so joyous . A few of the children with whom she had played lived here still , but they had grown into sturdy , swarthy young men and women who had long since forgotten the dark-eyed child whose Italian had been as fluent as their own ; and though she wandered disconsolately through the straggling little village , she met with no single glance of recognition . She did not know that some months previously urgent inquiries had been made at the tiny post-office as to whether a young lady had arrived in the village unexpectedly .