noon
`` Oh ! if she but valued him at his just worth she would value his opinion second only to the approval of conscience , '' she thought , sadly , ever regretful of her sister 's too obvious indifference towards so kind a husband . It was Saturday , the first of September , and the hot dry weather having continued with but trifling changes throughout the month , the atmosphere was at its sultriest , and the burnt grass in the parks looked as if even the dews of morning and evening had ceased to moisten it , while the arid and dusty foliage gave no feeling of coolness , and the very shadows cast upon that parched ground seemed hot . Morning was sultry as noon ; evening brought but little refreshment ; while the night was hotter than the day . People complained that the season was even more sickly than in the plague year , and prophesied a new and worse outbreak of the pestilence . Was not this the fatal year about which there had been darkest prophecies ? 1666 !