midday sun
This lovely chaos extended for about a mile and then ended abruptly . As though cultivated nature had suddenly broken loose from her artificial bounds , a dark jungle-forest rose up side by side with the flowers and well-kept walks , and like a black stain spread itself into the distance , swallowing up hill and valley until the eye lost itself in the haze of the horizon . Within a few hundred yards of the palace a ruined Hindu temple lifted its dome and crumbling towers into the intense blue of the sky . And on garden , jungle , and temple alike the scorching midday sun blazed down with pitiless impartiality . For an hour the Rajah had remained watching the unchanging scene , scarcely for an instant shifting his own position . One hand rested on his hip , the other held back the curtain and supported him in a half-leaning attitude of dreamy indolence . Against the intensified darkness of the room behind him his features stood out with the distinctness of a finely cut cameo .