noon
The crétin being gone , I was free to walk out . At first I lacked courage to venture very far from the Rue Fossette , but by degrees I sought the city gates , and passed them , and then went wandering away far along chaussées , through fields , beyond cemeteries , Catholic and Protestant , beyond farmsteads , to lanes and little woods , and I know not where . A goad thrust me on , a fever forbade me to rest ; a want of companionship maintained in my soul the cravings of a most deadly famine . I often walked all day , through the burning noon and the arid afternoon , and the dusk evening , and came back with moonrise . While wandering in solitude , I would sometimes picture the present probable position of others , my acquaintance . There was Madame Beck at a cheerful watering-place with her children , her mother , and a whole troop of friends who had sought the same scene of relaxation . Zélie St. Pierre was at Paris , with her relatives ; the other teachers were at their homes .