afternoon, about three o'clock
she said again . `` Now , you remember . '' She turned from him , and Tenney went , head down , to his work . That afternoon , about three o'clock , Nan was in her garden , busy with the peony bed . She was dressed in cotton crêpe the color of the soil , and her cheeks were red , like wild roses , and her ungloved hands also the color of mould . She was delightfully happy getting into the earth and the earth into her , and she looked it . Charlotte , coming on her across the grass , thought her face was like a bloom the rest of her had somehow made , as the earth was going to make red peonies .