four o'clock sun
And she was alone at night in the room that had seen the glory of her marriage and then the pain . To meet Jeff again she went back in spirit to that wonderful year , that intense , passionate absorption and companionship , rather than looked forward to a problematical meeting hereafter ; she awoke often to lie and wish for that presence beside her -- inanimate yet breathing -- still Jeff . One afternoon six months after his death she was sitting on the porch , in a black dress which took away the faintest suggestion of plumpness from her figure . It was Indian summer -- golden brown all about her ; a hush broken by the sighing of leaves ; westward a four o'clock sun dripping streaks of red and yellow over a flaming sky . Most of the birds had gone -- only a sparrow that had built itself a nest on the cornice of a pillar kept up an intermittent cheeping varied by occasional fluttering sallies overhead . Roxanne moved her chair to where she could watch him and her mind idled drowsily on the bosom of the afternoon . Harry Cromwell was coming out from Chicago to dinner .