noon
But at length a brighter day seemed to dawn for them ; for the bishop , who had watched for years John Thornton 's patient industry and blameless conversation , gave him , to his great joy and astonishment , the living of Drumston , worth 350L . a-year . And now , at last , he might marry if he would . True , the morning of his life was gone long since , and its hot noon spent in thankless labour ; but the evening , the sober , quiet evening , yet remained , and he and Jane might still render pleasant for one another the downward road toward the churchyard , and hand-in-hand walk more tranquilly forward to meet that dark tyrant Death , who seemed so terrible to the solitary watcher . A month or less after John was installed , one soft grey day in March , this patient couple walked slowly arm-in-arm up the hill , under the lychgate , past the dark yew that shadowed the peaceful graves , and so through the damp church porch , up to the old stone altar , and there were quietly married , and then walked home again . No feasting or rejoicing was there at that wedding ; the very realization of their long deferred hopes was a disappointment . In March they were married , and before the lanes grew bright with the primroses of another spring , poor Jane was lying in a new-made grave , in the shadow of the old grey tower .