noon
This was the happiest time of her life -- she was happy in the renewal of her love , happy in the approaching triumph of her hate . In Leicester Square there is a dim old house , which I have but this instant visited , in order to bring back more vividly to my recollection the wild and unhappy being who , for some short time , inhabited its old-fashioned and gloomy chambers . In that house , at the time I now speak of , lodged the mysterious Liehbur . It was late at noon , and she sat alone in her apartment , which was darkened so as to exclude the broad and peering sun . There was no trick , nor sign of the fallacious art she professed , visible in the large and melancholy room . One or two books in the German language lay on the table beside which she sat : but they were of the recent poetry , and not of the departed dogmas , of the genius of that tongue . The enthusiast was alone ; and , with her hand supporting her chin , and her eyes fixed on vacancy , she seemed feeding in silence the thoughts that flitted to and fro athwart a brain which had for years lost its certain guide ; a deserted mansion , whence the lord had departed , and where spirits not of this common life had taken up their haunted and desolate abode .