noon
Then she got up , dried her eyes that were wet with tears , and , after laying a freshly wetted cloth on the child 's throat , she went out of doors in obedience to the physician 's advice . The sun was already at the meridian , and its direct rays were fiercely reflected from the slabs of yellow sandstone that paved the forecourt . On one side only of the wide , unroofed space , one of the colonnades that surrounded it threw a narrow shade , hardly a span wide ; and she would not go there , for under it stood several beds on which lay pilgrims who , here in the very dwelling of the divinity , hoped to be visited with dreams which might give them an insight into futurity . Klea 's head was uncovered , and , fearing the heat of noon , she was about to return into the door-keeper 's house , when she saw a young white-robed scribe , employed in the special service of Asclepiodorus , who came across the court beckoning eagerly to her . She went towards him , but before he had reached her he shouted out an enquiry whether her sister Irene was in the gate-keeper 's lodge ; the high-priest desired to speak with her , and she was nowhere to be found . Klea told him that a grand lady from the queen 's court had already enquired for her , and that the last time she had seen her had been before daybreak , when she was going to fill the jars for the altar of the god at the Well of the Sun . `` The water for the first libation , '' answered the priest , `` was placed on the altar at the right time , but Doris and her sister had to fetch it for the second and third .