noon
`` I had hoped that you would sympathize with and be more interested in my great sorrow . '' `` Miss Dexter , my interest is more profound , more intense , than you can imagine , but at this juncture circumstances forbid its expression . My buggy is at the door . '' Even at mid-day the grounds around `` Solitude '' were sombre and chill , for across the sky the winds had woven a thin , vapory veil , whose cloud-meshes seemed fine as lacework ; and through this gilded netting the sun looked hazy , the light wan and yellow , and rifled of its customary noon glitter . Following one of the serpentine walks , the governess was approaching the house , when her attention was attracted by the gleaming surface of a tomb , and she turned towards the pyramidal deodars that were swaying slowly in the breeze , -- `` Warming their heads in the sun , Checkering the grass with their shade , '' and photographing fringy images on the shining marble . A broad circle of violets , blue with bloom , surrounded a sexangular temple , whose dome was terminated by a mural crown and surmounted by a cross . The beautifully polished pillars were fluted , and wreathed with carved ivy that wound up to the richly-sculptured cornices , where poppies clustered and tossed their leaves along the architrave ; and , in the centre , visible through all the arches , rose an altar , bearing two angels with fingers on their lips , who guarded an exquisite urn that was inscribed '' _ cor cordium _ . ''