August noon
The girl was very pale , and her eyes looked dark and liquid , as she raised them to the president 's face . From his seat in the south transept , Billy watched her while she stood there , tall and straight and noble in her young womanhood , a very daughter of to-day ; and , as he looked , within him there strengthened the belief which had been slowly forming and guiding his life ever since the day , more than six years before , when Theodora had come down to him from the old apple-tree . In all those tedious , aching years , Theodora had been his best friend ; and now with health and with her before him , he could afford to work , and wait , and hope . Two years had passed away , and The Savins lay basking in the heat of an August noon . Here and there , a broad calladium leaf swayed majestically to and fro in a passing breeze , and the locusts sang shrilly in the trees overhead . Upstairs in her own room , Theodora rocked lazily , humming to herself while she darned her stockings . `` Prosaic work ! ''