noon
Later he had slipped away in the same quiet abstracted manner . For the rest of the day Jarvis Thornton had been a little sad , as well as bored , without knowing exactly why . They had planned a simple wedding for September ; they would walk to the village church , the old white box of a meeting-house where the first Roper Ellwell had led his congregation . Martinson , Thornton 's youthful hero at the Camberton Theological School , would meet them in his episcopal robes on the little green in front of the church , and then the party , not more than a dozen , could walk together into the bare old building , and in the solemn quiet of the country noon complete the marriage . A quiet dinner , and then away from the Four Corners . But it could not be so . The handsome Ruby wished to have a `` function , '' some of the conventional excitements of this entertainment .