morning, noon
She had a great variety of these cap-ribbons , the young men being fond of sending them to her as presents until they fell definitely in love with a special sweetheart elsewhere , when they left off doing so . Between the border of her cap and her forehead were ranged a row of round brown curls , like swallows ' nests under eaves . She lived with her widowed mother in a portion of an ancient building formerly a manor-house , but now a mill , which , being too large for his own requirements , the miller had found it convenient to divide and appropriate in part to these highly respectable tenants . In this dwelling Mrs. Garland 's and Anne 's ears were soothed morning , noon , and night by the music of the mill , the wheels and cogs of which , being of wood , produced notes that might have borne in their minds a remote resemblance to the wooden tones of the stopped diapason in an organ . Occasionally , when the miller was bolting , there was added to these continuous sounds the cheerful clicking of the hopper , which did not deprive them of rest except when it was kept going all night ; and over and above all this they had the pleasure of knowing that there crept in through every crevice , door , and window of their dwelling , however tightly closed , a subtle mist of superfine flour from the grinding room , quite invisible , but making its presence known in the course of time by giving a pallid and ghostly look to the best furniture . The miller frequently apologized to his tenants for the intrusion of this insidious dry fog ; but the widow was of a friendly and thankful nature , and she said that she did not mind it at all , being as it was , not nasty dirt , but the blessed staff of life . By good-humour of this sort , and in other ways , Mrs. Garland acknowledged her friendship for her neighbour , with whom Anne and herself associated to an extent which she never could have anticipated when , tempted by the lowness of the rent , they first removed thither after her husband 's death from a larger house at the other end of the village .