noon
`` Laqueus contritus est , et nos liberati sumus : '' the net was broken and he was delivered . She had refused his devotion , that he might give it to his God ; and now he would only think of her , and whisper her name , when he was kneeling before the Blessed Mary , his advocate . O that that second and better Eve , who brought salvation into the world , as our first mother brought death , O that she might bear Callista 's name in remembrance , and get it written in the Book of life ! It was high noon ; and all this time Agellius was walking in his present excited mood , without covering to his head , under the burning rays of the sun , not knowing which way he went , and retracing his steps , as he wandered about at random , with a vague notion he was going homewards . The few persons whom he met , creeping about under the shadow of the lofty houses , or under the porticoes of the temples , looked at him with wonder , and thought him furious or deranged . The shafts of the sun were not so hot as his own thoughts , or as the blood which shot to and fro so fiercely in his veins ; but they were working fearfully on his physical frame , though they could not increase the fever of his mind . He had come to the Forum ; the market people were crouching under their booths or the shelter of their baskets .