noon
`` I do not know , '' she answered wearily , and her whole form wilting she looked away from him . `` I do not know . Go now , if you please -- and remember ! '' The old town of Geneva , pent in the angle between lake and river , and cramped for many generations by the narrow corselet of its walls , was not large ; it was still high noon when Mercier , after paying his reckoning at the `` Bible and Hand , '' and collecting his possessions , found himself again in the Corraterie . A pleasant breeze stirred the leafy branches which shaded the ramparts , and he stood a moment beside one of the small steep-roofed watch-towers , and resting his burden on the breast-high wall , gazed across the hazy landscape to the mountains , beyond which lay Chatillon and his home . Yet it was not of his home he was thinking as he gazed ; nor was it his mother 's or his father 's face that the dancing heat of mid-day mirrored for him as he dreamed . Oh , happy days of youth when an hour and a face change all , and a glance from shy eyes , or the pout of strange lips blinds to the world and the world 's ambitions !