About noon
`` But if she is not returned alive within a year from this date , then , O excellent Princess , I pray you to be my heir , holding everything of mine yours unconditionally . And may God keep you ! '' We have seen the result of Sergius ' interview with the Prince of India , and remember that it was yet early in the morning after Lael 's disappearance when , in company with Nilo , he bade the eccentric stranger adieu , and set forth to try his theory respecting the lost girl . About noon he appeared southwest of the Hippodrome in the street leading past the cistern-keeper 's abode . Nilo , by arrangement , followed at a distance , keeping him in sight . By his side there was a fruit peddler , one of the every-day class whose successors are banes of life to all with whom in the modern Byzantium a morning nap is the sweetest preparation for the day . The peddler carried a huge basket strapped to his forehead .