noon
After eleven ! She would go into the garden , where she could look down the road and have the first glimpse of Eddy Minns climbing the hill . With her thoughts in galloping confusion , she put on her flat hat with its twist of white lace about the crown , and went out into the heat . From the bench under the big poplar she looked across at the girdling hills , blue and hot in the still flood of noon ; below her was the valley , now a sea of treetops islanded with Old Chester roofs and chimneys ; there was no gleam of the river through the midsummer foliage . She took her watch out of the little watch-pocket at her waist -- nearly twelve ! If he had got the despatch at nine , it was surely time for an answer . Still , so many things might have happened to delay it .