noon
It was the Wagner overture that practically prevailed , up through Italy , where Milly had already been , still further up and across the Alps , which were also partly known to Mrs. Stringham ; only perhaps `` taken '' to a time not wholly congruous , hurried in fact on account of the girl 's high restlessness . She had been expected , she had frankly promised , to be restless -- that was partly why she was `` great '' -- or was a consequence , at any rate , if not a cause ; yet she had not perhaps altogether announced herself as straining so hard at the cord . It was familiar , it was beautiful to Mrs. Stringham that she had arrears to make up , the chances that had lapsed for her through the wanton ways of forefathers fond of Paris , but not of its higher sides , and fond almost of nothing else ; but the vagueness , the openness , the eagerness without point and the interest without pause -- all a part of the charm of her oddity as at first presented -- had become more striking in proportion as they triumphed over movement and change . She had arts and idiosyncrasies of which no great account could have been given , but which were a daily grace if you lived with them ; such as the art of being almost tragically impatient and yet making it as light as air ; of being inexplicably sad and yet making it as clear as noon ; of being unmistakably gay , and yet making it as soft as dusk . Mrs. Stringham by this time understood everything , was more than ever confirmed in wonder and admiration , in her view that it was life enough simply to feel her companion 's feelings ; but there were special keys she had not yet added to her bunch , impressions that , of a sudden , were apt to affect her as new . This particular day on the great Swiss road had been , for some reason , full of them , and they referred themselves , provisionally , to some deeper depth than she had touched -- though into two or three such depths , it must be added , she had peeped long enough to find herself suddenly draw back . It was not Milly 's unpacified state , in short , that now troubled her -- though certainly , as Europe was the great American sedative , the failure was to some extent to be noted : it was the suspected presence of something behind it -- which , however , could scarcely have taken its place there since their departure .