midday afternoon
Fate plays with us . `` Tcheck , tcheck , '' said Cossar . `` Get up . '' It was a hot midday afternoon , not a breath of wind , and the dust was thick in the roads . Few people were about , but the deer beyond the park palings browsed in profound tranquillity . They saw a couple of big wasps stripping a gooseberry bush just outside Hickleybrow , and another was crawling up and down the front of the little grocer 's shop in the village street trying to find an entry . The grocer was dimly visible within , with an ancient fowling-piece in hand , watching its endeavours .