noon
By this time they had cleared away the charred wreckage of Storch 's shack , discovering the secret which its ruins had concealed . He found himself wondering how soon they would link him with the still-born plot which had achieved so much tragedy in spite of its miscarriage . Of Ginger there was little trace . She had been caught up in a winding sheet of flame , a chariot of fire which had swept clean her pitiful and outraged body ... Again he saw her face , wistful in the glare of that portentous noon , framed by the outline of Storch 's doorway , heard himself call her name in agony , and woke to find only a memory answering him . And there came to him a realization of the terrible beauty of that moment which had released her spirit in white-heated transfiguration . A sudden pity for the living began to well up within him ... for Hilmer in the relentless grip of the harpy who would tear at his content with her scrawny fingers ... for Mrs. Hilmer , condemned to feed to the end upon the bitter fruits of hatred ... for his wife , drifting to a pallid fate made up of petty adjustments and compromises . Yes ... he found himself pitying Helen Starratt most of all .