morning, about midday
... `` All is ended , '' he said again , clenching his hands . And the following day he was waiting outside of the hotel just as on other days . Then he would go for his customary stroll , afterwards entering the Aquarium in the same , old hope of seeing her before the tanks of the cuttlefish . He finally met her there one morning , about midday . He had been over to his boat and on returning entered , through force of habit , sure that at this hour he would find nobody but the employees feeding the fishes . His dazzled eyes were affected with almost instantaneous blindness before becoming accustomed to the shadows of the greenish galleries ... . And when the first images began to be vaguely outlined on his retina , he stepped hastily backward , so great was his surprise .