midday
Their wedding-day was the sort of day which made Browning , when he lived in Florence , sing : `` Oh , to be in England Now that April 's there ... * * * * `` And after April , when May follows , And the whitethroat builds , and all the swallows ... '' Margaret said the words to herself as the day greeted her when she pulled up her blind in the morning . London , even in war time , was inviting and charming for such as drove about the West End in taxis , for they had not yet disappeared from the highways and byways . The day was clean and fresh and sweet-smelling . The promise of brilliant sunshine in the midday hours made the fashionable streets near the Iretons ' rooms very busy and gay . Khaki-clad figures were everywhere ; some were accompanied by daintily-clad girls , proud of their soldier lovers ; others were walking with portly old gentlemen , their generous grandfathers or godfathers , most probably ; while many of them had given themselves over to their mothers for the morning . Nor were they , as they would have been in the days of peace , embarrassed by their affectionate grasp of their arms and the unconcealed adoration and love . * * * * * * Things had happened with such bewildering rapidity that Margaret drove through the streets to the church in which they were to be married in a sort of open-eyed dream .