the noon sun
Beauty ! that was what she meant to him , he told himself when thought was at last uppermost , and not mere passionate feeling . She was delight and harmony , and allegiance to her was like worship of the world . When he got out of his dream and went in to dinner with the noon sun upon his burning face , she was on the veranda with grannie , a little pale still , but sweet and responsive in the quiet ways she had for every day . Peter , looking at her , felt the sun go out of his blood , and the mad worship of that hour in the orchard seemed like a past bacchanal rout and triumph when the worshipers go home to feed the flocks . His will , recalled , took him by swift revulsion to Electra , but it could not make the journey welcome . She seemed to be far away on some barren plain at the top of climbing .