The sun was low, and the sky was full of violet clouds.

Barney could see outlined faintly against them the gray sweep of the roof that covered Charlotte's daily life.
Soon the bell for the evening meeting began to ring, and Barney started.

People might soon appear on their way to meeting, and he did not want to see them.

Barney avoided everybody now; he had been nowhere since the cherry party, not even to meeting.

He led the life of a hermit, and seldom met his kind at all, except at the store, where he went to buy the simple materials for his solitary meals.
Barney turned aside from the main road into the old untravelled one leading past Sylvia Crane's house.