noon
He felt humbled before it -- envied it . If it made Arsenius a more complete and more captivating person , why should it not do the same for him ? Why should not he , too , have his share of it ? Bringing with it such thoughts as these , the time ran on till noon , and the mid-day meal , and the afternoon 's work , to which Philammon looked forward joyfully , as a refuge from his own thoughts . He was sitting on his sheepskin upon a step , basking , like a true son of the desert , in a blaze of fiery sunshine , which made the black stone-work too hot to touch with the bare hand , watching the swallows , as they threaded the columns of the Serapeium , and thinking how often he had delighted in their air-dance , as they turned and hawked up and down the dear old glen at Scetis . A crowd of citizens with causes , appeals , and petitions , were passing in and out from the patriarch 's audience-room . Peter and the archdeacon were waiting in the shade close by for the gathering of the parabolani , and talking over the morning 's work in an earnest whisper , in which the names of Hypatia and Orestes were now and then audible .