noon
Yet in the society of this person the demon troubled me not . Let me explain yet more fully the dread conditions of its presence . In coarse excitement , in commonplace life , in the wild riot , in the fierce excess , in the torpid lethargy of that animal existence which we share with the brutes , its eyes were invisible , its whisper was unheard . But whenever the soul would aspire , whenever the imagination kindled to the loftier ends , whenever the consciousness of our proper destiny struggled against the unworthy life I pursued , then , Adela -- then , it cowered by my side in the light of noon , or sat by my bed , -- a Darkness visible through the Dark . If , in the galleries of Divine Art , the dreams of my youth woke the early emulation , -- if I turned to the thoughts of sages ; if the example of the great , if the converse of the wise , aroused the silenced intellect , the demon was with me as by a spell . At last , one evening , at Genoa , to which city I had travelled in pursuit of the mystic , suddenly , and when least expected , he appeared before me . It was the time of the Carnival .