seven in the morning
She rose even earlier than usual . She did not mean that the presence of her guests should interfere with what had now become a connected work , to interrupt which would be an injury to the whole and an injustice to the people who had learned to expect it of her , looking for more , as she gave them more , and turning to her in every difficulty . But for the arrival of the party on the previous afternoon she would have gone down to an outlying farm in the valley , where the farmhouse needed repairs and there was a question of cutting down a number of olive trees so old that they hardly bore any fruit . She had ordered her mare at half-past seven in the morning , and she rode down the long , winding road , saw , judged , and gave orders , galloped most of the way up , and exchanged her riding-habit for her morning frock before the clock struck ten . One after another , her guests appeared , and everything happened as she had foreseen . The old couple said that they were accustomed to take a little walk before the midday meal , for the sake of their appetite ; Taquisara disappeared when he had helped Gianluca to a big chair in a balcony , in the shade , outside the drawing-room , and Gianluca was left alone with her , as she had expected . She established herself opposite to him , for the balcony was so narrow that two chairs could not be placed upon it side by side .