noon
`` Bravo , Monsieur le Curé ! '' I cried . But he only smiled modestly and , extracting the empty shell , blew the lurking smoke free from the barrels . It was noon when we turned to half the chicken and a bottle of _ vin ordinaire _ with an appetite . The northeast wind had now shifted to the south ; the bay became like glass , and so the afternoon passed until the blood-red sun , like some huge ribbed lantern of the Japanese , slowly sank into the sea . It grew dusk over the desolate marsh . Stray flights of plovers , now that the tide was again on its ebb , began to choose their resting places for the night .