noon
Gregory could not forbear asking , with a slight flush , `` How did Miss Walton look ? '' `` Like her surroundings , '' said the clerk , politely blind , `` and not like a city belle . Mr. Gregory , I congratulate you on possessing the most home-like place on the river . '' Gregory took the earliest train the following morning , and at noon found himself by the cedar thicket again , with a strange thrill , as he recalled all that had occurred there and since . He sat down to rest for a moment on the rock where Annie had first found him more than a year before . Beneath him lay his home -- his now in truth -- embowered in crimson and golden foliage , that seemed doubly bright in the genial October sunlight , while at his very feet were the orchard 's laden boughs , beneath which he had proved to Annie the reality and depth of his love ; and there beyond was the cottage of Daddy Tuggar , with that old man smoking upon the porch . But , chief of all , he could mark the very spot by the brook in the garden where Annie 's hand , like an angel 's , had plucked him from the brink of despair , and given the first faint hope of immortal life .