noon
But when they reached the door , he would look back to catch the expression on his mother 's face . She still could find a smile for him , nay , often there were tears in her eyes when some little thing revealed her child 's exquisite feeling , a too early comprehension of sorrow . Mme. Willemsens dressed during the children 's early breakfast and game of play ; she was coquettish for her darlings ; she wished to be pleasing in their eyes ; for them she would fain be in all things lovely , a gracious vision , with the charm of some sweet perfume of which one can never have enough . She was always dressed in time to hear their lessons , which lasted from ten till three , with an interval at noon for lunch , the three taking the meal together in the summer-house . After lunch the children played for an hour , while she -- poor woman and happy mother -- lay on a long sofa in the summer-house , so placed that she could look out over the soft , ever-changing country of Touraine , a land that you learn to see afresh in all the thousand chance effects produced by daylight and sky and the time of year . The children scampered through the orchard , scrambled about the terraces , chased the lizards , scarcely less nimble than they ; investigating flowers and seeds and insects , continually referring all questions to their mother , running to and fro between the garden and the summer-house . Children have no need of toys in the country , everything amuses them .