noon
Something in them seemed to plead with her to yield to their influence , and her choice wavered which of them to follow , for each would have led her her own way , -- whither she knew not . It was the strife of her `` Vision , '' only in another form , -- the contest of two lives her blood inherited for the mastery of her soul . The might of beauty conquered . Myrtle resigned herself to the guidance of the lovely phantom , which seemed so much fuller of the unextinguished fire of life , and so like herself as she would grow to be when noon should have ripened her into maturity . Doors opened softly before them ; they climbed stairs , and threaded corridors , and penetrated crypts , strange yet familiar to her eyes , which seemed to her as if they could see , as it were , in darkness . Then came a confused sense of eager search for something that she knew was hidden , whether in the cleft of a rock , or under the boards of a floor , or in some hiding-place among the skeleton rafters , or in a forgotten drawer , or in a heap of rubbish , she could not tell ; but somewhere there was something which she was to find , and which , once found , was to be her talisman . She was in the midst of this eager search when she awoke .