midday
Is it possible she can have retreated , like a despairing commandant , into her bedchamber , the very citadel of the place , without even an attempt to defend the outworks ? '' As he made this reflection , he passed through an antechamber and little eating parlour , exquisitely furnished , and hung with excellent paintings of the Venetian school . Beyond these lay a withdrawing-room , fitted up in a style of still more studied elegance . The windows were darkened with painted glass , of such a deep and rich colour , as made the midday beams , which found their way into the apartment , imitate the rich colours of sunset ; and , in the celebrated expression of the poet , `` taught light to counterfeit a gloom . '' Buckingham 's feelings and taste had been too much , and too often , and too readily gratified , to permit him , in the general case , to be easily accessible , even to those pleasures which it had been the business of his life to pursue . The hackneyed voluptuary is like the jaded epicure , the mere listlessness of whose appetite becomes at length a sufficient penalty for having made it the principal object of his enjoyment and cultivation . Yet novelty has always some charms , and uncertainty has more .