about noon
If ever I had made up my mind to anything in all my life , it was at this particular time , and as stern and strong as could be . I had resolved to let things pass , -- to hear about them gladly , to encourage all my friends to talk , and myself to express opinion upon each particular point , when in the fullness of time no further doubt could be . But all my policy went for nothing , through a few touches of feeling . One day at the beginning of July , I came home from mowing about noon , or a little later , to fetch some cider for all of us , and to eat a morsel of bacon . For mowing was no joke that year , the summer being wonderfully wet -LRB- even for our wet country -RRB- , and the swathe falling heavier over the scythe than ever I could remember it . We were drenched with rain almost every day ; but the mowing must be done somehow ; and we must trust to God for the haymaking . In the courtyard I saw a little cart , with iron brakes underneath it , such as fastidious people use to deaden the jolting of the road ; but few men under a lord or baronet would be so particular .