noon before
To set forth on the road again , after nine years of well-fed monotony , and under conditions so favourable to his physical well-being , was to drink the wine of romance from a golden cup . Odo was at the age when the spirit lies as naturally open to the variations of mood as a lake to the shifting of the breeze ; and Cantapresto 's exuberant humour , and the novel details of their travelling equipment , had soon effaced the graver influences of Donnaz . Life stretched before him alluring and various as the open road ; and his pulses danced to the tune of the postillion 's whip as the carriage rattled out of the gates . It was a bright morning and the plain lay beneath them like a planted garden , in all the flourish and verdure of June ; but the roads being deep in mire , and unrepaired after the ravages of the winter , it was past noon before they reached the foot of the hills . Here matters were little better , for the highway was ploughed deep by the wheels of the numberless vans and coaches journeying from one town to another during the Whitsun holidays , so that even a young gentleman travelling post must resign himself to a plebeian rate of progression . Odo at first was too much pleased with the novelty of the scene to quarrel with any incidental annoyances ; but as the afternoon wore on the way began to seem long , and he was just giving utterance to his impatience when Cantapresto , putting his head out of the window , announced in a tone of pious satisfaction that just ahead of them were a party of travellers in far worse case than themselves . Odo , leaning out , saw that , a dozen yards ahead , a modest chaise of antique pattern had in fact come to grief by the roadside .