midnight
`` Apollo , the sun god , '' she said , smiling , as she turned and left him alone . Overhead was a sky of soft , dusky blue , broken by the clear light of the stars : all about were the familiar walks of the villa garden , mysterious now in the darkness , and seeming to lead into infinite space . The lines of aloe , fig , and palm stood like shadows guarding a world of mystery . Daphne , wandering alone in the garden at midnight , half exultant , half afraid , stepped noiselessly along the pebbled walks with a feeling that that world was about to open for her . Ahead , through an arch where the thick foliage of the ilexes had been cut to leave the way clear for the passer-by , a single golden planet shone low in the west , and the garden path led to it . Daphne had been unable to sleep , for sleeplessness had become a habit during the past week . Whether she was too happy or too unhappy she could not tell : she only knew that she was restless and smothering for air and space .