summer noon
Each , therefore , reflected virtue on the other , as planet illumines planet . All these years of probation then , which might have soured a love less holy , changed into weariness a love less intense , had only served to wed them more intimately soul to soul ; and in that spotless union what happiness there was ! what rapture in word and glance , and the slight , restrained caress of innocence , beyond all the transports love only human can bestow ! It was a bright still summer noon , when Harold sate with Edith amidst the columns of the Druid temple , and in the shade which those vast and mournful relics of a faith departed cast along the sward . And there , conversing over the past , and planning the future , they had sate long , when Hilda approached from the house , and entering the circle , leant her arm upon the altar of the war-god , and gazing on Harold with a calm triumph in her aspect , said : `` Did I not smile , son of Godwin , when , with thy short-sighted wisdom , thou didst think to guard thy land and secure thy love , by urging the monk-king to send over the seas for the Atheling ? Did I not tell thee , ` Thou dost right , for in obeying thy judgment thou art but the instrument of fate ; and the coming of the Atheling shall speed thee nearer to the ends of thy life , but not from the Atheling shalt thou take the crown of thy love , and not by the Atheling shall the throne of Athelstan be filled ' ? '' `` Alas , '' said Harold , rising in agitation , `` let me not hear of mischance to that noble prince .