midday
But for the arrival of the party on the previous afternoon she would have gone down to an outlying farm in the valley , where the farmhouse needed repairs and there was a question of cutting down a number of olive trees so old that they hardly bore any fruit . She had ordered her mare at half-past seven in the morning , and she rode down the long , winding road , saw , judged , and gave orders , galloped most of the way up , and exchanged her riding-habit for her morning frock before the clock struck ten . One after another , her guests appeared , and everything happened as she had foreseen . The old couple said that they were accustomed to take a little walk before the midday meal , for the sake of their appetite ; Taquisara disappeared when he had helped Gianluca to a big chair in a balcony , in the shade , outside the drawing-room , and Gianluca was left alone with her , as she had expected . She established herself opposite to him , for the balcony was so narrow that two chairs could not be placed upon it side by side . It was a magnificent summer 's day , one of those days in which the whole glory of the south fills heaven and earth and air , and the stupendous tide of universal life pours into every sense , to very overflowing , as the ocean fills its world-wide bed . And the world was ripe and ripening , the corn and wheat , and olive and vine , and fruit and flower and tree , from the rich valley below , up the rough hills , as far as sun and soil and rain could draw the dress of beauty over the mountains ' grand bare strength .