noon
Her strange companion placed her in a chair , and stooping down before the half-extinguished ashes , raked them together and fanned them with his hat . From time to time he glanced at her over his shoulder , as though to assure himself of her remaining quiet and making no effort to depart ; and that done , busied himself about the fire again . It was not without reason that he took these pains , for his dress was dank and drenched with wet , his jaws rattled with cold , and he shivered from head to foot . It had rained hard during the previous night and for some hours in the morning , but since noon it had been fine . Wheresoever he had passed the hours of darkness , his condition sufficiently betokened that many of them had been spent beneath the open sky . Besmeared with mire ; his saturated clothes clinging with a damp embrace about his limbs ; his beard unshaven , his face unwashed , his meagre cheeks worn into deep hollows , -- a more miserable wretch could hardly be , than this man who now cowered down upon the widow 's hearth , and watched the struggling flame with bloodshot eyes . She had covered her face with her hands , fearing , as it seemed , to look towards him .