noon
Jean withdrew from the houselling cloth , wondering to be just the same as ever and already disillusioned . He was never again to recover the first fervent rapture . The holidays were near . An noon of a blazing hot day Jean was seated in the shade on the dwarf-wall that bounded the school count towards the headmaster 's garden , He was playing languidly at shovel-board with a schoolfellow , a lad as pretty as a girl with his curls and his jacket of white duck . `` Ewans , '' said Jean , as he pushed a pebble along one of the lines drawn in charcoal on the stone coping , `` Ewans , you must find it tiresome to be a boarder ? '' `` Mother can not have me with her at home , '' replied the boy . Servien asked why .