midday
But to Charity , in the reaction from her mood of passionate exaltation , there was something disquieting in his silence . It was almost as if Lucius Harney had never had a part in their lives : Mr. Royall 's imperturbable indifference seemed to relegate him to the domain of unreality . As she sat at work , she tried to shake off her disappointment at Harney 's non-appearing . Some trifling incident had probably kept him from joining them at midday ; but she was sure he must be eager to see her again , and that he would not want to wait till they met at supper , between Mr. Royall and Verena . She was wondering what his first words would be , and trying to devise a way of getting rid of the Targatt girl before he came , when she heard steps outside , and he walked up the path with Mr. Miles . The clergyman from Hepburn seldom came to North Dormer except when he drove over to officiate at the old white church which , by an unusual chance , happened to belong to the Episcopal communion . He was a brisk affable man , eager to make the most of the fact that a little nucleus of `` church-people '' had survived in the sectarian wilderness , and resolved to undermine the influence of the ginger-bread-coloured Baptist chapel at the other end of the village ; but he was kept busy by parochial work at Hepburn , where there were paper-mills and saloons , and it was not often that he could spare time for North Dormer .