noon
She spoke to Arnaud at once about this ; and alone , through his delicacy of perception , Linda went to Boston the following day . The further ride to Cottarsport followed the sea -- a brilliant serene blue , fretted on the landward side by innumerable bare promontories , hideous towns and factories , but bowed in a far unbroken arc at the immaculate horizon . She left the train for a hilly cluster of houses , gray and low like the rock everywhere apparent , dropping to a harbor that bore a company of motionless boats with half-spread drying sails . The day was at noon , and the sky , blue like the sea , held , still as the anchored schooners , faint , chalky symmetrical clouds . Linda found the Common without guidance ; and at once saw , on its immovable base of rugged granite , the bronze statue of Simon Downige . It stood well in advance of what , evidently , was the court-house , the white steeple Dodge had described . She found a bench by a path in the thin grass ; and there , her gloved hands folded , at rest in her lap , her gaze and longing were lifted to the fixed aspiration .