about noon
He was a frank , pleasant-looking gentleman , but far too grand and high for Stephen to address , though he gazed wistfully at him whenever he chanced to meet him on the hills . One afternoon Martha saw him and the master walking towards Fern 's Hollow , where the fencing-in of the green and of the coppice behind the hut were being finished rapidly ; and she crept with stealthy steps under the hedge of the garden , until she came within earshot of them ; but they were just moving on , and all she heard of the conversation were these words , from the lord of the manor : ` You shall have it at any rate you fix , Wyley -- at a peppercorn rent , if you please ; but I will not sell a square yard of my land out and out . ' How Martha and Stephen did talk about those words over and over again , and could never come to any conclusion about them . It was about noon on Michaelmas Day , a day which was of no note up at Fern 's Hollow , where there was no rent to be paid , and Martha was busily hanging out clothes to dry on the gorse bushes before the house , when she saw a troop of labourers coming over the brow of the hill and crossing the newly-enclosed pasture . They were armed with mattocks and pickaxes ; but as the peaceful little cottage rose before them , with blind old Fern basking in the warm sunshine , and little Nan playing quietly about the door-sill , the men gathered into a little knot , and stood still with an irresolute and ashamed aspect . ` They know nothing about it , ' said William Morris ; ` look at them , as easy and unconcerned as lambs . I was afeared there 'd be a upshot , when the master were after old Fern so long .