noon
`` I am under no obligation to your judgment or opinion , '' William replied stiffly . `` There are always complications you will never penetrate nor carry . At present your assistance is more necessary than any display of temper . '' The funeral gathered and ebbed in a long procession of carriages through a sultry noon , the services at the grave concluded by the symbolic dropping of the earth on Jeremy Ammidon 's coffin lowered into the deep narrow clay pit . The large varied throng lingered for a breath , as if unable to take their attention from the raw opening that had absorbed the shipmaster , and then there was a determined and reassuring commonplace murmur , a hurrying away into the vital warmth of the day . The evening was the loveliest summer and the garden of Java Head could afford : a slow moon disentangled itself from the indigo foliage at the back of the stable and soared with an increasing brilliancy , bathing the sod and summerhouse and poplars , the metallic box borders and spiked flower beds , in a crystal clearness . The Ammidons sat about the willow , Rhoda with a hand affectionately on her husband 's arm , the children -- Laurel and Janet staying without remark long past their accustomed hours for bed -- still and white under the blanching moon .