noon
`` It is frostbitten noses to stay out , '' answered Reginald . `` Moonlight is very well in its place ; but I want my dinner . '' The sleighing party had had one dinner that day , but were quite ready for another . They had stopped at noon at a country inn , and fared sumptuously on fried ham and eggs and sour Canadian bread , and then had gone off rambling up the hills and into the woods . How it happened , no one but Reginald Stanford ever knew ; but it did happen that Kate was walking beside Jules La Touche up a steep , snowy hill , and Reginald was by Rose 's side in a dim , gloomy forest-path . Rose had no objection . She walked beside him , looking very pretty , in a black hat with long white plume and little white veil .