morning, noon
At this the old man made one more attempt to speak ; but the widow rose , and saying : `` Come , my children , '' she hastily withdrew with the girls into the adjoining room , and closed the door . Horapollo was left alone on the threshold . Old as he was , in all his life he had never suffered such an insult ; but he did not lay it to the score of those who had shown him the door , but to the already long one of the Syrian girl ; as he rode back to his own home on his white ass , he stopped several times to speak to the passers-by . During the following day or two he heeded not the heat of the weather , nor his own need of rest for his body , and quiet occupation for his mind ; morning , noon and night he was riding about the streets stirring up the people , and setting forth in insinuating speeches that they must perish miserably if they rejected the only means of deliverance which he had pointed out to them . He was present at every meeting of the Senate , and his inflammatory eloquence kept the town council on his side , and nullified the efforts of the bishop , while he pressed them to fix the day of the marriage of the Nile with his bride . He knew the Egyptians and their passion for the intoxicating joys of a splendid ceremonial . This festival : the wedding of the Bride of the Nile to her mighty and unresting spouse , on whom the weal or woe of the land depended , was to be as a flowery oasis in the waste of dearth and desolation .