noon
For Principal Garnet was very proud of his moral character . On the same afternoon in which John March first saw the Major and Jeff-Jack , Barbara and Johanna were down by the spring-house at play . This structure stood a good two hundred yards from the dwelling , where a brook crossed the road . Three wooded slopes ran down to it , and beneath the leafy arches of a hundred green shadows that only at noon were flecked with sunlight , the water glassed and crinkled scarce ankle deep over an unbroken floor of naked rock . The pair were wading , Barbara in the road , Johanna at its edge , when suddenly Barbara was aware of strange voices , and looking up , was fastened to her footing by the sight of two travelers just at hand . One was on horseback ; the other , a youth , trod the stepping stones , ragged , dusty , but bewilderingly handsome . Johanna , too , heard , came , and then stood like Barbara , awe-stricken and rooted in the water .