noon
And faintly , very dimly , Isabelle began to realize that she had never really been alive , -- these thirty years and more . `` We are all plastic , '' she murmured , and looked away to the hills . Life at Grosvenor moved on in a placid routine , day after day . What with her children and the engrossing work at the doctor 's Margaret was busy every morning , and Isabelle rarely saw her before the noon meal . Then at the plentiful dinner over which the blacksmith presided with a gentle courtesy and sweetness there was gossip of the hospital and the village , while Short , who had the father instinct , entertained the children . He knew all the resources of the country , every animal wild or tame , every rod of wood and pasture and hill . The little Poles opened him like an atlas or encyclopedia .