four in the afternoon
At any rate , they were very old , earth-stained and time-stained and full of unutterable history , and with the eternal cold touch of stone which never wholly warms even under warmest sun . The kind of bench which Alma-Tadema usually fills with diaphanous maidens . At this particular time a maiden , not at all diaphanous , but mentally and physically material , sat on one of these benches , her arms thrown out on either side of the crumbling back , her chin lowered , and her eyes thoughtfully directed toward the little circle of disturbed water where the goldfish were urging for the next crumb . Now , as Phoebus was somewhere near four in the afternoon , he was growing ruddy with effort in the final spurt for the western horizon . So the marbles and the fountain and the water and the maiden all melted into a harmonious golden tone . Merrihew was not so poetical as to permit this picture to go on indefinitely ; so he stole up from behind with all the care of a practised hunter till he stood directly behind the maiden . She still dreamed .