noon
The leaves , after their blaze and riot of colour , turned crisp and crackly and brown . Some of the little still puddles were filmed with what was almost , but not quite , ice . A sheen of frost whitened the house-roofs and silvered each separate blade of grass on the lawns . But by noon the sun , rising red in the veil of smoke that hung low in the snappy air , had mellowed the atmosphere until it lay on the cheek like a caress . No breath of air stirred . Sounds came clearly from a distance . Long V-shaped flights of geese swept athwart the sky very high up , but their honking carried faintly to the ear .