noon
He sent his gentleman with us to the Manor House , telling him to join him at Newcastle that same evening ; so there was no great length of time for him to make us known to all the strangers before he , too , shook us off ; and we were left , two lonely young things -LRB- I was not eighteen -RRB- in the great old Manor House . It seems like yesterday that we drove there . We had left our own dear parsonage very early , and we had both cried as if our hearts would break , though we were travelling in my lord 's carriage , which I thought so much of once . And now it was long past noon on a September day , and we stopped to change horses for the last time at a little smoky town , all full of colliers and miners . Miss Rosamond had fallen asleep , but Mr. Henry told me to waken her , that she might see the park and the Manor House as we drove up . I thought it rather a pity ; but I did what he bade me , for fear he should complain of me to my lord . We had left all signs of a town , or even a village , and were then inside the gates of a large wild park -- not like the parks here in the south , but with rocks , and the noise of running water , and gnarled thorn-trees , and old oaks , all white and peeled with age .