noon
Shirley said she liked the green sweep of the common turf , and , better still , the heath on its ridges , for the heath reminded her of moors . She had seen moors when she was travelling on the borders near Scotland . She remembered particularly a district traversed one long afternoon , on a sultry but sunless day in summer . They journeyed from noon till sunset , over what seemed a boundless waste of deep heath , and nothing had they seen but wild sheep , nothing heard but the cries of wild birds . `` I know how the heath would look on such a day , '' said Caroline ; `` purple-black -- a deeper shade of the sky-tint , and that would be livid . '' `` Yes , quite livid , with brassy edges to the clouds , and here and there a white gleam , more ghastly than the lurid tinge , which , as you looked at it , you momentarily expected would kindle into blinding lightning . '' `` Did it thunder ? ''