noon
Women , more keenly observant than the men , saw the deep-seated grief in his eyes . As he approached Montreal he kept himself more and more aloof from the others . When at last the train came to a stop at the big station in the heart of the city he walked through the gates and strode up the hill toward Mount Royal . It was an hour or more past noon , and he had eaten nothing since morning . But he had no thought of hunger . Twenty minutes later he was at the foot of the street on which Isobel had told him that she had lived . One by one he passed the old houses of brick and stone , sheltered behind their solid walls .