noon
Born of the sunshine , on a morning in late December , gray ephemerae danced and dipped and fashioned vanishing patterns against the green of the great laurel at the corner of Drift farmyard . The mildness of the day had wakened them into brief life , but even as they twinkled their wings of gauze death was abroad . A sky of unusual clearness crowned the Cornish moorland , and Uncle Chirgwin , standing at his kitchen door , already foretold frost , though the morning was still young . `` The air 's like milk just now , sure ` nough , an ' ` twill bide so till noon ; then , when the sun begins to slope , the cold will graw an ' graw to frost . An ' no harm done , thank God . '' He spoke to his niece , who was in the room behind him ; and as he did so a circumstance of very unusual nature happened . Two persons reached the front door of the farm simultaneously , and a maid , answering the double knock , returned a moment later with two communications , both for Mary Chirgwin .