three o'clock
Glaucus did not attempt to follow , or to soothe ; he was offended ; he continued to examine the jewels and to comment on their fashion -- to object to this and to praise that , and finally to be talked by the merchant into buying all ; the safest plan for a lover , and a plan that any one will do right to adopt , provided always that he can obtain an Ione ! When he had completed his purchase and dismissed the jeweller , he retired into his chamber , dressed , mounted his chariot , and went to Ione . He thought no more of the blind girl , or her offence ; he had forgotten both the one and the other . He spent the forenoon with his beautiful Neapolitan , repaired thence to the baths , supped -LRB- if , as we have said before , we can justly so translate the three o'clock coena of the Romans -RRB- alone , and abroad , for Pompeii had its restaurateurs -- and returning home to change his dress ere he again repaired to the house of Ione , he passed the peristyle , but with the absorbed reverie and absent eyes of a man in love , and did not note the form of the poor blind girl , bending exactly in the same place where he had left her . But though he saw her not , her ear recognized at once the sound of his step . She had been counting the moments to his return . He had scarcely entered his favorite chamber , which opened on the peristyle , and seated himself musingly on his couch , when he felt his robe timorously touched , and , turning , he beheld Nydia kneeling before him , and holding up to him a handful of flowers -- a gentle and appropriate peace-offering -- her eyes , darkly upheld to his own , streamed with tears .